The first in our Virtual Biotech series, our July 19th event was a success.  Thanks to our participants – some of San Diego’s leading virtual drug discovery scientists and CROs – for sharing their valuable insights and advice for scientists managing or considering how to manage an outsourced drug discovery project.

We’ve compiled some of the key tips and highlights of the night including:

• What activities should you outsource?
• Finding the right CRO for your objectives
• Managing your CRO relationship successfully every time
• Virtual tools to help manage and build your CRO network
• Finding the funding and resources you need for your virtual drug discovery projects

What Activities Should You Outsource?

Our panelist Scott Struthers, Founder & CSO of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, summed up this topic with a simple, “…what you’re good at, you do in-house; what you can afford you do in-house.”

Struthers’ team looks to outsourcing when dealing with capital- or labor-intensive projects and this was the consensus among panel members.  By focusing on the activities your team does best, your efficiency and productivity are maximized – all else can be outsourced.

Finding a CRO to Become Part of Your R&D Network

Finding a CRO you can trust is critical.  Here are some tips and practices from our panelists for finding the perfect CRO for your project:

1. Seek recommendations from colleagues and friends.  Whether referrals are from scientists within your long-term network or a colleague in your current company, peer reviews are incredibly valuable for obvious reasons.  These recommendations can also help you distill your initial CRO options down to a few, making the search more manageable.
2. Leslie Hickle, VP Business Development at BioAtla, LLC, identified the following three key areas to consider when determining if a CRO will be a fit for your project:
   • Quality – Do they have referrals?
   • Cost – Are their services cost-effective for this project?
   • Speed – Do they deliver on time?

   Hickle also notes that you will need to clearly determine your own expectations for each of these categories so you can easily compare CROs.

3. Once a CRO is a fit, never, ever, ever – ever – let them go.  They are now part of your Virtual R&D Network.

Managing Successful CRO Relationships

While several elements comprise a successful strategy when managing a CRO, this statement truly sums up the hallmark characteristic of successful, long-term CRO relationships:

“…the really successful projects are the ones where we become like an extension of the project team, where we’re looked on as collaborators.”

- Panelist Diana Wetmore, Vice President of Business Development at Emerald BioStructures

Manage your CRO relationship as if it were another branch of your existing team. Speakers note that this extends to all areas of a project.  To successfully manage a CRO relationship, a strategy is required that consists of:

• Partnership – Viewing your CRO as a member of your team will optimize your project’s productivity and overall success; CROs will give you input and documentation to help you with your budget, your strategy, and many other areas of your project.
• Communication -
  • High frequency especially at the beginning of a project is important
  • Milestones and goals are clearly identified so no grey area exists
  • Virtual tools are extremely helpful throughout the entire project, and online video tools were identified as especially useful when establishing a new relationship
  • Problems or issues are communicated and handled as team
• Dedicated Management – A dedicated person who manages the virtual meeting and collaboration process is essential.  This person leads and organizes the virtual meeting space, including: communications, coordinating attendee schedules, managing the call itself, gathering and sharing any relevant documents, following up with attendees, tracking the project and managing online communication platforms for team
• Alignment – Be On the Same Page: To achieve success, both the CRO and the client need to be on the same page.  Know what you want and expect, and have the conversations early to establish the foundation for your relationship and ensure consistent successes.

Global or Local?

Resoundingly, the quality of the relationship, not where the CRO was located, seemed to be the most important ingredient.  However, here are some pros and cons of global vs. local CROs listed by our participants:

Best Virtual Tool to Help Manage Outsourcing

Participants appreciated the abundance of online tools and resources available to help build their global networks of outsourced R&D.  Useful tools included:

• Virtual meeting spaces – Online video and audio programs allow easy, inexpensive, and (most importantly) frequent communication.
• Virtual file-sharing spaces -  Sharing content quickly and securely helps to increase efficiency

How to Find Funding and Resources

Our participant, Jim Hauske, President and Founder of Sensor Pharma, notes four key questions that need to be answered to obtain funding, or the possibility of funding:

1. Who owns the company?
2. What is the therapeutic, or technology focus?
3. What, if anything, has been accomplished?
4. What is the IP estate?

And where to find that funding?

• VCs
• Pharma
• SBIR grants (Small Business Innovation Research) – low hurdle for startups
• Disease organizations
• Patient Advocacy groups
• High net worth individuals and their non-profit organizations
• Self funded
• Micro-funding (individuals, small private groups)

Resources: In addition to finding funding, resources are available for virtual drug discovery companies, such as San Diego Entrepreneur’s Exchange.  SDEE is a virtual incubator and social networking tool for San Diego startups.  This site allows scientist’s access to resources such as equipment and lab space and helps teams find other scientists with which to collaborate and potentially partner.

How are “risk sharing” deals really structured?

CROs can help to shoulder some of the risk involved with a project.  For example, Diana Wetmore explained that her CRO may determine the structure of a risk-sharing deal by assessing a project, then binning into one of three levels – low- , mid- , and high-risk projects.  Varying levels of commitment are proposed by the CRO, according to perceived probability of success.

In an extreme example of sharing the risk burden Richard Lin, moderator and President and CEO of Explora BioLabs, emphasized flexibility and creativity when assessing a risk-sharing deal.  He explained that his CRO performed an entire project for no fee, and received double the normal payment when the client achieved Phase I funding – a risk, but a clear win for both sides.

Bottom Line

You and your CRO are on the same team.  Utilize your network and online tools to find your CRO.  Then build a successful relationship by defining your expectations, communicating frequently, and including your CRO partner in all processes along the way.

We hope these tips and practices will help you to effectively manage your Drug Discovery outsourcing.

If all of your questions weren’t answered here, stay tuned for more in our Virtual Biotech series or leave a question or comment below.

Or, are you a CRO or virtual drug discovery scientist with some insights our community could use?  We’d love to hear from you!

Thanks to Our Virtual Drug Discovery Participants:

Jim Hauske, President and Founder,Sensor Pharma (Bio)

Virtual Drug Discovery panelists:

Leslie Hickle,VP, Business Development, BioAtla, LLC (LinkedIn)

Daniel Holsworth,Co-founder/Board of Directors, ODIN Therapeutics AS(LinkedIn)

Richard Lin (Moderator), President and CEO, Explora BioLabs (LinkedIn)

Ajay Madan, Senior Director of Development, Neurocrine Biosciences (LinkedIn)

Scott Struthers, Founder & CSO,Crinetics Pharmaceuticals (LinkedIn)

Diana Wetmore, Vice President of Business Development, Emerald BioStructures (Bio)

Wednesday I attended a regenerative medicine-focused breakfast at the BIO convention and learned about San Diego company Advanced BioHealing (ABH), who took a ‘fallen’ asset, Dermagraft, and not only turned it into an $85M/year product, but is also looking for new indications. Dermagraft was sold by Advanced Tissue Sciences, who had invested hundreds of millions into developing it, and even got FDA approval for the product to treat diabetic foot ulcers.
I spoke with Advanced BioHealing’s Senior VP Dean Tozer, and he describes their methodology as ‘reverse biotech,’ meaning that they first focused on commercializing products, and just recently hired their CSO Charles Hart. Hart will be spearheading the efforts to find soft tissue indications for Dermagraft. This is counter to how most biotechs in San Diego form, and it appears to be working for ABH as they are predicting 30-50% growth over the next few years.
This growth translates to jobs in San Diego, with 15 listed on the ABH careers page currently. ABH has locations in Westport, Connecticut and Nashville, Tennessee as well, and plans to continue manufacturing products in their 70,000 square foot La Jolla site near the Burnham Institute, and has recently acquired 20,000 square feet of office space nearby in an old Pfizer site. I asked Tozer whether the jobs will continue to be created in San Diego, and he said yes, because the talent pool here is so valuable to them.
What can other San Diego biotechs learn from this example? At BIO this year, I have seen successful repurposing of assets and information. It may simply be the product of a down economy, but I wonder what we can learn, and what could be gained by investigating failed assets that exist from local companies who have not survived? Tozer also believes strongly that the right people make the difference, and they were lucky to bring together a team which understands biotech commercialization. Surely, attracting or training more commercially focused professionals in the area would be a great start.

The September San Diego Biotechnology Network (SDBN) event will feature Intellikine, a leader in the development of innovative, small molecule drugs for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases, and recently in the news for raising $51M in VC funding. Troy Wilson, Ph.D., CEO, will give a short presentation, and as always there will be plenty of time to ask questions and interact with representatives from Intellikine.

Troy Wilson is the President, CEO and a founder of Intellikine, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of small molecule drugs that target the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and other diseases. Dr. Wilson is a serial entrepreneur who previously has co-founded several San Diego based companies, including Ambrx and Phenomix. In his presentation, Dr. Wilson will describe Intellikine’s formation, the scientific and clinical rationale behind its drug discovery programs, its business development and corporate strategy, and how the company was able recently to raise $51 million in venture capital in a very challenging market. The presentation should be of interest to scientists, entrepreneurs, clinicians and anyone interested in how to translate world-class academic science into a leading biotech company.

Event Details

Who: Biotechnology professionals in the greater San Diego area
What: San Diego Biotechnology Network’s September Networking Event featuring Intellikine
When: Tuesday, September 22nd, 5:30-9:00 p.m.
Where: Tango Del Rey, 3567 Del Rey Street, San Diego 92109 (Directions below)
Cost: $20, including appetizers ($15 for Academics) +$5 at door (cash or check only)
Contact: http://sdbn.org/contact
For more information about the event: http://sdbn.org/september

Directions: From the North: South on Interstate 5, Exit Balboa Ave, Straight to 4th Traffic Light then left on Bunker Hill St. Building directly ahead 3 blks. From the South: North on Interstate 5, Exit Grand/ Garnet Ave, Straight to 3rd Traffic Light then right on Bunker Hill St. Building directly ahead 3 blks. Park on the street or in the structure just past Tango del Rey.

I’ve been attending a lot of events in San Diego and reading reports that opportunities for funding are increasing. I’ve been invited to attend the 2009 SoCalBio Investor and Partnership Conference September 17th in Santa Monica, and I wanted to pass on the information to the group, as I know many of you are interested in getting funding, networking, or learning about what’s new.

The morning will consist of 3 parallel tracks of company presentations in Biotech/Biopharma, Devices, and Diagnostics and Instrumentation. After a networking lunch, Dr. Francois Nader, CEO of NPS Pharmaceuticals and a veteran in the industry, will present a keynote presentation. In the afternoon, three parallel investor/partnership tracks will take place for VC/angels, corporate partnerships, and innovative financing. As if this weren’t enough, the networking cocktail reception will showcase technologies from local institutions such as UCLA, UCI or USC.

This is a great opportunity to meet investors and learn about new technologies in the Southern California area. The SDBN is dedicated to improving communication among biotechnology professionals in the region, and I highly suggest that you attend. The event will likely have a different ‘flavor’ than the San Diego events, and you might learn about larger trends and opportnities. Click here to register. There are also sponsorship opportunities still available, click here for more information.

The SDBN is all about promoting the biotechnology community in San Diego, and for our August 18th event we’re going to highlight a local company, and open it up to the members to decide which one. We did this back in February and it was a big success, as the local biotech community not only learned about the featured company, but others that were considered.

How does it work? San Diego Biotechnology or Life Science companies will submit information regarding their company, a product, or technology to present at the August 18th event. In addition, they’ll promise to have team members on hand to interact with the attendees. SDBN members will vote and a single winner will present.

Interested in submitting your company? Companies can enter regardless of their size, but must have headquarters or a significant presence in the region–we’ll include the area from San Diego to LA. Be creative and remember that you’ll be competing–submit something timely and interesting. If you’re hiring and will be looking at candidates during the event, feel free to say so, and you’ll likely get votes from job seekers. Got someone ‘famous’ on your SAB? Invite them to talk (but remember they’ll need to limit it to 20 minutes–we know how they like to talk ;). Just got funding? Tell us how you did it!

To submit your company, fill out the form at http://sdbn.org/augevent by July 20th (note we’re limiting it to 6 companies, so we may reach the limit before that date).

During our May 28th Social Media for Scientists (SMS) SDBN event, William Gunn talked about friendfeed as a useful tool for discussing science and learning. We polled the attendees before the event and found that they knew almost nothing about it, and had little interest in learning about it. We set up a friendfeed room for the group and frankly have not had much adoption.

So, what’s so great about friendfeed, why do we keep talking about it? Friendfeed aggregates all of your activity on social media, so that when you post anything on twitter, your blog, Flickr, etc. (58 social media applications are available), all of your connections there see it. Now, think of this used with a scientific ‘persona,’ if you will. You can share interesting articles, blog posts, presentations–some people even post data on Flickr–with your colleagues. Every post can be commented on, leading to interesting discussions. See this example of how friendfeed was used to stimulate and manage discussions regarding the conference, and the interest was so high that posts were thought to be spam!

Friendfeed takes it one step further, allowing you to form and join groups which focus on topics (see table below). You can benefit from group members’ posts, ask questions of the group, and take part in the discussions from any post. Scientists have been using the web to interact via forums and mailing list for a long time (we even discussed friendfeed vs. these older ways of communicating there). While someone pointed out that there is ‘nothing wrong with the old forums and mailing lists’ and that ‘you can post longer items using the old methods’ I see real value in the ’2.0′ forms of communicating such as friendfeed. With these types of social media, as with media such as twitter, often people post interesting observations that lead to unexpected comments and new directions–there is a level of serendipitous discovery that occurs. Also, because the groups are full of like-minded people, there is not much noise, and even discussions that are tangential to your work can be interesting. As William Gunn pointed out in our SMS presentation, you can also search all posts and comments from your friends or groups, leading to one of the most targeted web searches available (bing, eat your heart out).

One thing that I find incredibly interesting is that these groups can also become commentaries on larger issues. See the References Wanted group below–it is a repository for articles that scientists cannot access freely, and thus a commentary on the need for more open access science, paradigms that journals such as PLoS subscribe to. In addition, you’ll find that the scientists on friendfeed are keen to learn about new tools–see the Evernote Addicts group, a group dedicated to software for aggregating information that scientists (and others) find very useful. As with other types of social media, it is not clear what the lifetime of friendfeed’s relevancy will be, but you can be sure that the people here will be ahead of the curve in knowing what the ‘next big thing’ for scientists will be, even if it means moving away from friendfeed or being a ‘force’ to help change it.

As with other social media, the best way to learn is to try it yourself. I suggest signing up and subscribing to the groups below, getting email updates for convenience at first. We realize that some of you are still hesitant to join, and that’s OK. It turns out that Facebook and friendfeed have a lot of similarities, as a fan page can be set up for a group of people, and items can be posted on and discussed among members. We set up a SDBN fan page for this purpose, become a fan and start posting and interacting! We hope that it will give you a ‘taste’ of ‘serendipitous scientific social media’ and that you’ll be inspired to participate in tools such as friendfeed. We’ll also continue to help you learn more about the tools for science in social media through blog posts and events. As we mentioned at the SMS event, participating in social media gives you a way to get a ‘leg up’ from your colleagues in real time, and we think that once you start experiencing it, you’ll be as hooked as we are!

P.S. On friendfeed there is even a discussion on this post!

Friendfeed Groups for Life Scientists: Some Examples

Don’t see a group that interests you? Search the friendfeed groups for your research area or anything you’re interested in, or start your own!

Posted by Mary Canady of Comprendia, which helps life scientists and the industry improve communication through social media and marketing strategies. Special thanks to Sally Church of Icarus Consultants & PharmaStrategyBlog for helping with the list of groups, and to the friendfeed life scientists group, who let this ‘marketer in scientist clothing’ participate in the group. Also thanks to William Gunn, for help and convincing me to persist with friendfeed even though I didn’t ‘get it’ at first.

I recently looked over a company presentation for a friend and noticed something that I see a lot from scientists: she was being too modest in stating her reputation and abilities. When I pointed it out, it seemed as though I was suggesting that she should brag, a fate worse than death it appeared. Now, we all knew the jerk in grad school who acted like s/he can and did do everything, winning the favor of the advisor and not giving credit to others in the lab. I am not suggesting that scientists should overstate their abilities, but rather, be more confident and clearly communicate their skills and how they can benefit others.

I see this change in attitude being beneficial at many levels. On a personal level, scientists should think about what they’re good at early and often, and how to communicate it (also, if distinguishing talents don’t emerge, that needs to be worked on as well!). This is good for a scientist in developing his or her scientific progress as well as landing a job that fits well and positions them for maximum growth. See Comprendia’s Biotechnology Marketing 101: You First presentation for more hints on finding and communicating your ‘value proposition.’

Additionally, I see biotechnology as a whole benefiting from more confident, self-realized scientists. If companies find it easy to identify qualified candidates, either because they clearly post their abilities on LinkedIn or give great interviews, they save time and end up with employees who are a great fit and can communicate well. I also see scientists at companies being too modest at all levels, it doesn’t always ‘go away’ when a scientist leaves academia or reaches upper management. See Comprendia’s Biotechnology Marketing 101: Your Company for more details on clearly defining and communicating the value proposition of your company. Your business, science, and employees will all benefit when it is clear what your company excels at.

Who benefits when scientists are too modest? I can’t think of anyone. As long as you give credit where credit is due, and help others, you should realize that knowing and communicating your talents is the best way to advance the field. If you’re worried that you’re exaggerating, by all means ask for advice from some colleagues. Any fears about appearing too arrogant will likely be allayed by people who know you or your company, and they may even tell you that you’re still understating your abilities!

I sometimes feel as though I’m on the ‘other side’ of science since I concentrate on marketing, but I think I’ve got a good perspective on the importance of communication for success in biotechnology and life sciences. Success by any one of us means more success for all of us. Remember that many younger scientists are benefiting and learning from your science and your achievements–why understate them? As life scientists, we don’t have a Hippocratic Oath regarding our responsibilities to society, but maybe we should. Feel free to leave your ideas for one below!

Looking forward to seeing everyone tonight. We’ll have onsite registration ($25, $20 for academics with ID), so feel free to stop by. You’ll be able to network with people from 50+ companies at the event, and we always do our best to ensure that you make as many contacts as possible. Also, Regulus Therapeutics will be giving a presentation on microRNA therapeutics, a very hot drug discovery topic. We’ll also be giving away some shwag from Labarmor, including a stylish black labcoat!

Event details: http://sdbn.org/april

See you there!

People from the following companies will be in attendance tonight:

Want more details about these companies? Many are listed on our San Diego Biotechnology Company Directory: http://sdbn.org/directory