Get Thee to the Market, Scientist

Dream inventions may fizzle. Managers and marketers can interfere with research and nudge scientists out of key decisions. Commercial product development is fraught with problems. But inventors in academia urge their colleagues to brave the risks and take their ideas to market anyway. At least that's the sentiment emerging from a reader survey conducted by The Scientist. "Do it," insists one respondent, even though a university developed a product based on her research without compensating, or even consulting her.(The Scientistdoes not disclose the names of its survey participants.) "Network!" says one scientist even though his product proposal was "not seriously considered" when he presented it to a relative in business, a venture capitalist, and a consulting firm. His advice? "Form a group of colleagues who can divide among them the many different tasks involved in commercial development." Source: The Scientist reader survey, "Taking Science to the Market: A Survey of Academic-Private Sector Alliances." Such enthusiastic endorsements reflect the views of participants in "Taking Science to the Market: A Survey of Academic-Private Sector Alliances" (www.the-scientist.com/yr2001/aug/results_010820.html). The unscientific Web-based survey was conducted by E-mailing invitations to 1,474 readers of The Scientist. More than half the 248 respondents have considered developing a discovery into a commercial product. The urge to commercialize sometimes outruns reason. Many respondents encourage their inventor-colleagues to contact the technology-transfer offices of their universities or seek out alliances with private companies, even though they themselves have received little money for their ideas or their forays into the marketplace sputtered out prematurely. Even so, a majority of participants, 196, report they've never tried to commercialize an idea or invention. Seventy-nine people, or 40 percent, of them say they do not know how to do it. Former research professor Marty Stanton and his colleagues at Brandeis University (who were not survey participants) learned firsthand from other scientists and inventors how to best attract money. According to Stanton, his team had confidence that they had developed a marketable idea using ribozymes to detect molecules, including those inside living cells. They identified an application for the process in the drug discovery field that required an examination of multiple proteins simultaneously. They worked and reworked their technology, and met with a lawyer to ensure the proof of principle. With their product secured, they launched their marketing campaign. Source: The Scientist reader survey, "Taking Science to the Market: A Survey of Academic-Private Sector Alliances." "We went to a lot of conferences and heard the venture capitalists speak," says Stanton, president of Archimex, a company for whom Boston-based Atlas Venture secured investments of $8.25 million. "We talked to people [and asked] 'Who do you think the best guys are? Who are the leaders in the drug discovery field? Who [understands] the direction the market is going?' At the end, we felt we had a technology, we understood the application, and we had really a small number of venture capitalists we wanted to talk to." Jean Francois Formela, life sciences partner at Atlas, says that university departments and nearby biotechs employ plenty of what he calls "gatekeepers"--company founders and leading experts in a field, with whom scientists can discuss commercializing discoveries. "The reason why the US has been so successful at starting new companies is that most scientists in computing, physics, and biotech have been acutely aware of the biotech paradigm," Formela observes. "At any big university, most, if not all, key professors have been involved as advisers or founders to business." Companies also seek ideas for development based on their scientists' reading of the literature. Officials at Merck & Co. Inc. like to examine short synopses of discoveries or inventions. Each month, a group of Merck scientists and product specialists discuss short written proposals that appear to have merit, says Pamela Demain, executive director of corporate marketing for the Whitehouse Station, NJ-based company. "One thing that is important to Merck is information on mechanism action," Demain adds. "We tend to work for breakthrough products with new mechanisms of action... that really make a difference in medicine." Only one in five participants in The Scientist survey who have developed a commercial proposal report that they brought the product or service to market. Few--only eight respondents--describe earning compensation from the commercialization of a discovery or idea. The survey's findings echo the observations of Janet Scholz, president elect of the Association for University Technology Managers. Scholz predicts that for every million dollars invested in research, 10 innovations will result. For every 10 innovations, one product may advance to the market. "There are so many things that are discovered, that when you start out, look like they are really going to go somewhere," Scholz adds. "Then there are so many potholes on the road to commercialization: so few of them ever make it out there ... for lots of reasons: some might be regulatory; some innovations were not as good as thought." The Scientistreaders cite obstacles to commercialization ranging from a failure to identify sources of product development funding to their own congested work schedules, which keep them from devoting enough time to a product. Scientists at large companies complain of restrictions on innovation. Some academic researchers say their university technology transfer office lacked the expertise for building relationships with investors. "Individuals in the Technology Transfer Office tend to think they know more than they do," complains one scientist. "They do not listen to instructions, and in general [I'm] not impressed at all." Source: The Scientist reader survey, "Taking Science to the Market: A Survey of Academic-Private Sector Alliances." Others credit the university for at least doing as much as could be done, and often for getting the product to the market. One veteran inventor, who has presented product proposals to his university tech transfer office, a relative in business, and to a startup company, says some technology transfer offices are better than others. He gives high marks to the offices at Clemson University in South Carolina, Ohio State University, Northwestern University, Michigan State University, and Georgia Institute of Technology. "Yes, [I'm] very satisfied with the tech transfer office personnel and the level of communication," another researcher reports. Another university researcher expresses respect for the university's approach. "They were very professional about protecting university interests," the researcher says, "and concerned about allowing industry to commercialize results partially obtained with federal funding." If university technology transfer systems occasionally vex some scientists, corporate regimes sometimes frustrate others. Not only does the company own the product of research performed in its laboratory, it also bears no obligation to pay scientists more for a new product or to keep the researcher in charge down the line. A scientist in a biotechnology company reported that his bosses offered salary incentives and promotion for innovation but deprived the researcher control of its production. "[The] research idea had to be explained in painstaking detail during many internal meetings," the scientist says. "The frustrating part was that I was not allowed to participate in the commercialization process." Another researcher, who works for a large pharmaceutical corporation, complained of a company-wide gag order. Any product idea mentioned--even in casual conversations outside the workplace--belongs to the company. One scientist at a large pharmaceutical company reports that he keeps ideas to himself, because, under his corporate confidentiality agreement any product discussed with a colleague--even offsite--becomes the company's intellectual property. Because it is so easy to lose control over an innovation, two scientists advocate a stealth strategy. One survey participant has adopted a philosophical approach since a university developed an idea and received a grant to produce it without crediting the project's author. "Keep it to yourself," the researcher jokes. "Develop it Switzerland." Paula Park can be reached at ppark@the-scientist.com. Reader Advice for New Inventors: Have all your background work on the technology finished Prepare current market analysis Make a rudimentary estimate of capital needed and a draft business plan outline (for submittal within a company) Develop a full business plan if planning a start-up Be aware of contract manufacturers and outsourcing alternatives File a patent application, if applicable, as soon as possible Register any trademark names as soon as possible

Get Thee to the Market, Scientist

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