Each year OTT helps launch high-quality start-up companies based on discoveries made by Emory faculty or staff. Over the past few months, OTT set out to interview a selection of the entrepreneurs and VCs we have worked with and pick their brains about what it takes to make a successful startup venture. To visit Part 1: here To visit Part 2: here To visit Part 3: here To visit Part 4: here To visit Part 5: here To visit Part 6: here What key items do you feel contribute to a successful startup? Stephen Snowdy (CEO; Venture Advisory Board Member at Emory University): In medical science startups, it is critical to have the best people possible analyzing and vetting the technology, the best people possible building the opportunity into a fundable story, and the best people possible selling the opportunity to funding sources; in other words, human capital is just as important as all of the science and medical business issues and is one of the most difficult resources to build. Extreme capital efficiency is also critical in the early stages owing to the dearth of early-stage funding that is available. Objectivity around decision-making is absolutely key. When and how
Continue readingAuthor: Linda Kesselring
Startups: Words from the Trenches – Part 6
Each year OTT helps launch high-quality start-up companies based on discoveries made by Emory faculty or staff. Over the past few months, OTT set out to interview a selection of the entrepreneurs and VCs we have worked with and pick their brains about what it takes to make a successful startup venture. To visit Part 1: here To visit Part 2: here To visit Part 3: here To visit Part 4: here To visit Part 5: here What do you see as the biggest changes over the past decade for start-ups? Stephen Snowdy (CEO; Venture Advisory Board Member at Emory University): The biggest change over the past decade is the dramatic decline in funding that is available for early-stage startups. The traditional way to fund innovation was that the government subsidized research and discovery through grants, venture capitalists invested in further risk reduction at the startup level, and ultimately passed the risk off to either the public markets or to large corporations. Government funding for research and funding available for venture capital have dropped to levels not seen in decades. In addition, on a macro-level, the traditional venture capital model has not been a successful financial model, so it is
Continue readingOTT30: 1st Start-up & IPO – CytRx
2015 marks the 30th anniversary for Emory OTT and part of that celebration includes a series of blog posts highlighting important “firsts” for the office. This month we highlight the first start-up which also happens to be the first start-up with an IPO – CytRx. (Since CytRx, ten more of our start-ups have gone public and seven have been merged or acquired.) In the mid-1980s, Dr. Robert Hunter, then a pathology professor at Emory, and William Ragland at the University of Georgia began studying vaccine adjuvants, substances added to a vaccine to increase the body’s immune response to the vaccine. When venture capitalist Steve Gorlin took an interest in their work in 1985, Hunter started the biopharmaceutical company CytRx to support further research. And so, Emory OTT saw its first start-up. Once CytRx obtained the initial boost of funds from Gorlin, the company held a public offering to raise additional capital in 1986, also making it OTT’s first startup to go public. Following a successful IPO, Hunter and the other researchers began studying a drug named RheothRx, which facilitated blood flow in damaged tissue and inhibited thrombosis. Hunter and his team saw an untapped potential in RheothRx. A crude form
Continue readingStartups: Words from the Trenches – Part 5
Each year OTT helps launch high-quality start-up companies based on discoveries made by Emory faculty or staff. Over the past few months, OTT set out to interview a selection of the entrepreneurs and VCs we have worked with and pick their brains about what it takes to make a successful startup venture. To visit Part 1: here To visit Part 2: here To visit Part 3: here To visit Part 4: here How did you go about building a team? Michael Lee (Chairman & CEO of the Emory start-up Syntermed): Assuming you’ve made the correct/best hire, understanding every team members’ personal and professional goals and aspirations within the context of the company’s corporate goals with an executive commitment to make sure these are fulfilled. Hire slowly, fire quickly. How did you know which technology is a good opportunity for starting a company? Stephen Snowdy (CEO; Venture Advisory Board Member at Emory University): I look for technologies that have the potential to materially change clinical outcomes for patients or that will significantly reduce the cost of healthcare. Also important are the quality of the data, strong international patent positioning, attractiveness in the financial markets (fundability), the height of the regulatory hurdles,
Continue readingAnother Successful AUTM Annual Meeting!
AUTM’s (the Association of University Technology Managers) Annual meeting in New Orleans, as others before it, was a whirlwind of non-stop education, networking, and partnering. AUTM 2015 was a busy meeting for the OTT team as members volunteered, attended sessions, spoke on panels, and participated in partnering sessions over the four day event. There was also the added “fun” of air travel during snow storms in Atlanta–real or imagined–which is painful and should be avoided! There were three previous posts that highlighted partnering and first AUTM meetings for staff and interns alike. As a final wrap-up, here are a number of highlights and overall observations from our group. Record Numbers: Attendance at the 2015 Annual AUTM Meeting was a record high since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008. This record is just another indicator that interest in this space has not waned, and instead demonstrates that technology transfer is, has been, and will continue to be a critical factor in driving innovation internationally. Change in Tech Transfer: The unofficial theme of this year’s meeting could have been “Change.” So many session topics could be traced back to change – patent protection, constrained resources, lean start-ups, and crowd
Continue readingInterns: AUTM From an Intern & Job Seeker’s Perspective
I went to AUTM at the encouragement of our licensing director and it was one of the best choices I have made in recent years. My decision to go was based upon two key factors; I am actively looking for a job and was in need of a vacation. Conferences have always been good for me to recharge myself and AUTM did more than that. Most people go to conferences to meet other people who are in similar pursuits so they can share experiences and ideas. AUTM is such a place, but as someone coming from a purely Ph.D. science background, I was particularly amazed by the diversity of people in attendance all working in the technology transfer industry: lawyers, marketing people, business people, administrative people, auditing people, accountants, scouting people, or other scientists like me. Everyone was surprisingly easy to talk to and willing to share their knowledge and perspective. I learned a lot of valuable information, much of it the type of info that one cannot just find online or through reading. The presentations and workshops are also drastically different from the scientific conferences I am familiar with. There are still data involved in some talks, but most
Continue readingNew Accelerator Emerges in Atlanta
Many consider Atlanta, Georgia to be the business center of the South. In addition to being a business capital, Atlanta continues to grow as an epicenter for research and development of medical devices, health information technology, and bioscience. Emergence, a non-profit medical accelerator, is working to provide the resources needed to keep those innovations and the resulting companies in Georgia. Georgia’s first business accelerator for biomedical technologies, Emergence wants to help bridge the gap between innovative health technologies and the skills needed to take them to market. Startup companies often leave an area due to a lack of resources. Emergence hopes to prevent this occurrence in the Atlanta-metro area. By partnering with local stakeholders, including corporations, universities, foundations, and business services, they are providing the tools necessary including education, mentoring, and capital for new MedTech or Health IT companies to thrive and create jobs in the area. Current program sponsors include Jackson Healthcare, McKesson, and Silicon Valley Bank. Emergence accepts applications from entrepreneurs located anywhere in the Southeast and willing to come to Atlanta for a twelve-week bootcamp. The 12-week program addresses key topics for startups, including Product and Market, Business Formation and Development, Raising Capital, and Professional Services. The
Continue readingAUTM Annual Meeting Perspective from a Newbie
The Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) is an organization comprised of people involved in all aspects of protecting, licensing and managing academic intellectual property. The AUTM Annual Meeting is an opportunity for education, networking, and partnering between universities, research organizations, companies, and service providers. Although I have been working in the technology transfer field for a few years, this was my first time attending the annual meeting; it was a pleasure to be in such a large environment with many like-minded individuals and meet people working towards a common goal. Here are my thoughts as a first time attendee: One thing that stood out to me was just how great a networking opportunity the AUTM Annual Meeting is. There are so many people who are willing to discuss issues, strategies and the crazy weather, not just in partnering meetings, but over a croissant or adult beverage. It is not every day that professionals from tech transfer offices, IP firms, and corporations around the world have the opportunity to relax and enjoy time together. Though they are not formal meetings, these informal interactions are opportunities to learn valuable information and build strong relationships; it truly fosters a feeling of community.
Continue readingAUTM Partnering with Companies – An Evolution
Tech transfer professionals were clamoring for more opportunities to meet with industry representatives. To address this request, the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) began a program during its annual meetings to help tech transfer offices to connect with industry. Since its start at the AUTM annual meeting in 2012, the program and its resulting partnering meetings have grown in popularity year over year. What started out as an experiment has grown into a staple and exceptionally valuable part of AUTM’s annual meetings. Our office has jumped at the chance to speak with companies about the exciting technologies spinning out of our labs. Over the years, both the quality and quantity of the meetings have seen a significant increase. Even the web- and mobile-platforms in which we meet and schedule meetings have improved over the years! As both sides (universities & companies) gained experience with speaking to one another, the level of sophistication during these discussions has improved as well. Early conversations were often focused on in-licensing or tech scouting opportunities. Meetings soon evolved toward a more holistic discussion of collaboration and “creative partnerships” to adapt to the ever-changing environment in which we do business. Recently those creative partnerships have
Continue readingOTT30: 1st Annual Celebration
2015 marks the 30th anniversary for Emory OTT and part of that celebration includes a series of blog posts highlighting important “firsts” for the office. This month we highlight the Annual Celebration. In April of 2007, OTT held its first Annual Celebration of Technology and Innovation at the Emory Conference Center. At its inaugural award ceremony, Dennis Liotta, Raymond Schinazi, Wayne Alexander, and Ernest Garacia received awards for their innovative technologies many that have reached the market place and improved the outcomes for countless patients. These products included HIV drugs, treatments for atherosclerosis, and cardiac imaging software. (You can find the products featured here http://www.ott.emory.edu/about/success/index.html.) This celebration is held each spring and has evolved to consist of a keynote address and four awards. The awards are innovation of the year, deal of the year, start-up of the year, and significant event of the year. These awards highlight and honor the great work of our Emory researchers as it relates to commercialization. This year’s celebration will be on Wednesday, March 4th, Emory Conference Center, Silverbell Pavilion at 5:00 pm. (Edit: This piece was about the 2015 edition, we advertise and announce each year’s celebration on the front of our website in the spring.) Keynote
Continue readingShow Your School Colors Tailgate Luncheon
This month we’ll be highlighting some of the behind the scenes activities our office engages in as part of building a strong team. We hope you enjoy them. Tweet back to us at @EmoryOTT and let us know what you like to do in your office! At an AUTM meeting about seven years ago, a group of people from our office were in the hotel bar watching a college basketball game for one of our alma maters. At some point the conversation turned to tailgating. We had recently moved into new office space and felt that some of our group chemistry had diminished due to the new space. The idea of tailgating came up and started to take on a life of its own. Could we figure out how to have an office tailgate party? How could we do it in such a way that everyone would enjoy it? Could we do it without running afoul of management? After quite a bit of brainstorming we felt like we had the answers – the event is referred to as our “Show Your School Colors Tailgate Luncheon.” The luncheon is aligned with the men’s basketball NCAA March Madness tournament, usually during the
Continue readingYou OTTer Know Our Office is Like No OTTer
This month we’ll be highlighting some of the behind the scenes activities our office engages in as part of building a strong team. We hope you enjoy them. Tweet back to us at @EmoryOTT and let us know what you like to do in your office! About three years ago, our finance & administration team including Sr. Program Associate Connie Newsome and Sr. Accountant Maritta Allison, were trying come up with new ways to add some fun and excitement to our licensing process. Knowing the members of the licensing team to be a somewhat competitive bunch, their thoughts drifted to adding a healthy dose of friendly competition to the mix. Then, Maritta had an idea! Members of our office had, on more than one occasion, referred to ourselves as the OTT-ers or “otters.” Why don’t we create a monthly OTTer award based on a handful of licensing criteria using an otter as the trophy? Thus the idea for the OTTer was born. Diligently searching online, Maritta found a stuffed otter and worked with a local trophy shop to get it mounted. The mounted OTTer would form a rotating trophy to be shared from associate to associate. Working with Cale Lennon,
Continue readingOTT30: 1st Disclosure
2015 marks the 30th anniversary for Emory OTT and part of that celebration includes a series of blog posts highlighting important “firsts” for the office. This month we highlight the first disclosure received at Emory. When Dave Lambeth, MD, PhD first came to Emory University in 1980, his mind was brimming with ideas about research on stress hormones and then how this might translate into commercially available anti-stress treatments down the road. But when he presented his first idea to the University, he found there were no formal resources for technology transfer. “I had come from Duke, who had a small tech transfer office at the time,” Lambeth remembers. “Since I was familiar with the process, I went to Emory and said, ‘I have this invention that I’d like to develop.’” The rest, as they say, is history. Over the next several months, Lambeth, a consultant from Duke, and a number of Emory staff worked to develop a more formal technology transfer program at Emory. Although his initial proposed invention hit a dead end, Lambeth’s disclosure sparked the process for what has now become Emory’s Office of Technology Transfer. “The invention never came to much, but the program, as you
Continue readingGit-R-Done: or Better Yet Got-R-Done!
This month we’ll be highlighting some of the behind the scenes activities our office engages in as part of building a strong team. We hope you enjoy them. Tweet back to us at @EmoryOTT and let us know what you like to do in your office!p> At many retailers and institutions, the ringing of a bell signifies a job well done; for example, Arby’s are known for having a bell at the entrance for customers to ring if their service was excellent. Several years ago our office borrowed this idea and started its own tradition of internally celebrating the signing of every AUTM reportable (exclusive and non-exclusive) license agreement by ringing a bell. The idea grew out of a conversation about how to share with staff that a new agreement had been signed and to do it in a way that was more interesting than sending an email. After bouncing more than a few ideas around it was decided to go with the age-old tradition of bell ringing. We needed to put our own spin on the custom, however, so we went online, found a place to order bells, and had it custom engraved. The engraving was originally supposed to
Continue readingEmory Partners With National Influenza Centers for Pandemic Preparedness
Throughout January we will be highlighting Emory’s and OTT’s work in infectious disease and vaccines. In our final piece we highlight the work of the Emory-UGA Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance. We are in the midst of flu season. While that pesky influenza virus is attempting to infect you and your friends, the team at the Emory-UGA Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS) is partnering with researchers around the world to keep it in line. Influenza, or “the flu,” is an infectious disease caused by the influenza virus, affecting 3 to 5 million people and leading to 250,000 to 500,000 deaths worldwide. The seasonal flu appears each year during the colder months and can typically be predicted and tracked geographically. It can spread rapidly without proper precautions. If you are curious as to how the flu virus infects someone check out this cool video blog from NPR. You can find lots of good health habits for preventing seasonal flu at CDC.gov. Originally launched and funded in 2007, the Emory-UGA Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS) is part of a national network of centers which aim to determine the molecular, ecologic and/or
Continue readingBattling HBV with Building Blocks of DNA
Throughout January we will be highlighting Emory’s and OTT’s work in infectious disease and vaccines. The second technology we are highlighting is Tyzeka®a drug to address Hepatitis B. The Hepatitis B virus inflames the liver and is one of the top ten killers worldwide. About 350 million people, about 5 percent of the world’s population, are chronic carriers, and thousands die each year from complications of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections, such as cirrhosis or liver cancer. Thankfully deaths are on the decline due to better treatment options including a vaccination. However for HBV patients who show signs of liver damage, are pregnant, or who have HIV as well, the medications normally used to treat HBV might do more harm than good. In fact, for someone co-infected with HIV, treatment with other HBV drugs could result in resistant HIV. Emory researcher, Raymond Schinazi, invented telbivudine (to help this group of patients that couldn’t be treated with existing HBV treatment options. Telbivudine is a synthetic analogue of the thymidine nucleoside, one of the major building blocks of DNA. Telbivudine (marketed as Tyzeka®) decreases the amount of HBV in the body and is the only FDA-approved hepatitis B drug that is selectively active
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