The Atlanta Clinical & Translational Science Institute (ACTSI), led by Emory University with partners Morehouse School of Medicine and Georgia Tech, and Georgia Bio, the state’s life sciences industry association, holds an annual conference to discuss the best methods for academia and industry to work together to translate science discoveries into products on the market and to engage communities in clinical research efforts and outcomes. The 5th Annual Academic & Industry Intersection Conference was held recently and this year, the focus was on medical devices and successful partnerships between academia and industry. We sat down with our Office’s Executive Director, Todd Sherer, who attended and participated in a panel at the conference to discuss the conference.
What was a highlight or two for you from the conference?
The highlight of the conference was the keynote address from Bill Hawkins. He talked a lot about the challenges associated with the FDA and the regulatory process. He even challenged the country to ask itself if there is a proper balance between being too conservative and getting new medications and devices approved. If we currently use the same process that was used 20 years ago, half the medications on the market wouldn’t have been approved. Bill is concerned that we are putting too much emphasis on the risks and suggested that we are at a point where we need to re-evaluate the risk vs. benefit and make sure we’re not too risk adverse.
Additionally, Wilbur Lam, from Emory, gave a very nice presentation on some of his work. He is a good example of a newer generation of faculty member who understands that it’s not just grant support that’s important. Wilbur was very well received by the audience particularly when he discussed two examples of projects he’s working on, the remote otoscope and the home anemia test kit.
What are current opportunities and obstacles for industry collaboration around medical devices?
Money is always a challenge, whether it’s at the research or translational research funding stage, trying to get access to funding is a challenge. In Atlanta it’s an on-going challenge to try and do business because we don’t have the world’s richest ecosystem. The good news and bad news is that everybody right now wants to be involved in commercialization even if they don’t know how, they understand that’s its important and critical. There is more attention being given and granted to commercialization than ever before. The down side is the potential to waste resources as there are so many efforts simultaneously under way. The question is how do you properly sort through initiatives and focus limited resources only toward the meritorious efforts. My personal concern is there may be substantial resources going toward opportunities that will not have a positive impact.
Do you think there are unique challenges to the commercialization of medical devices compared to those with pharmaceuticals or diagnostics?
The market size for medical devices is smaller than therapeutics and therefore a reliance on venture funding to advance business opportunities can be a challenge. Another big challenge in the medical device area is getting engineers and physician in the same space to share ideas and work together. There are some programs making that more successful but there is a lot more unmet opportunity. In the pharmaceutical space this is much less of an issue.
Do you think there are specific keys to successful industry collaborations?
We need to think broadly and creatively about collaboration. It may require more than licensing out a technology or sponsored research in the traditional way. The partnership might need to include consulting services, research collaboration support, licensing out components, and access to data. These collaborations can be complicated arrangements to put together because it includes assets from many different areas; however they appear to be the type of collaborations that companies are looking for these days.
You previously touched upon the unique challenges of the southeast as compared to the northeast, can you elaborate?
In the southeast we are spread across a larger geographical area. The greater Atlanta area is big and there are barriers to getting people together. They don’t necessarily walk the same sidewalks every day that people might in some of these other ecosystems that are more resource rich. So, getting people to have ‘hallway conversations’ or more random conversation is much harder to do. One way we try and address that is to create networking meetings, like this one, but even that presents a challenge because too many meetings can dilute attendance as everyone may not attend all meetings. Without regular attendance, these sporadic meetings may not necessarily be productive either if people aren’t seeing each other regularly. More effort may be necessary than in other regions but that does not mean collaborations and partnerships in the region are impossible.