The Long and Winding Road to Medical Innovation

How can medical research funders feel confident they are making a wise investment? One way is to optimize the management and run things more like a business, offered Roy Doumani of the California NanoSystems Institute. Benchmarks and a willingness to stop a project when it is not working were also cited.

How can investors build off existing research advances? Can we trust the published literature? According to James Heywood of the ALS Therapy Development Foundation, finding replicable data is an issue that needs a closer look. “Allocation decisions are being made based on previous research results, and this needs to be examined,” he said in the “Alternative Financing Models for Medical Innovations” panel.

Panelists agreed the investment market has changed and now all of the emphasis in research is on single products and that can hit the market soon, offered Geoffrey Parker at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Roy Doumani believes more leveraging of resources needs to happen, and those giving the money need to feel more confident in their decisions.

Mike Weiner of Biophan Technologies Inc. believes venture capital has too much control over this process, and that financing alternatives do exist. “Maybe incubators are appropriate for this space. One of the missing elements for innovation is you need to know if data is real and meaningful. The product I want to produce is giving them a viable business plan,” offered James Heywood.

(For more information on issues related to Fostering Innovation see the new FasterCures report.)

Photo: (L to R) Roy Doumani, Geoffrey Parker