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)

When’s the last time you met, had a brief conversation and exchanged cards with 20 professionals in 60 minutes? As a scientist, do you find it difficult to talk your way through a crowd? When it comes to networking, do you have the need for speed? Then maybe speed networking is for you! At last week’s SDBN event our members had the opportunity to meet one potential customer, referral, collaborator, qualified candidate, possible employer after another. Here’s how it worked.

Prior to starting, we gave a brief presentation describing what the next hour was gong to look like. Tables were arranged into a large ‘U’ shape with chairs on each side (members facing each other, see photos on Flickr for more details).  A diagram explained that the people sitting on the outside of the ‘U’ were going to stay in their seats while those on the inside would move one seat to their right upon hearing a cue. The four basic guidelines were…

1. You have 3 minutes total – Why three? Two is too little and five… well that would be too much. We knew that participants would be fried after 60 minutes and we wanted everyone to connect with at least 20 other professionals so… we landed on 3 minutes.
2. Introduce yourself – Allow each person to introduce themselves before starting the conversation.
3. Refine your message – We asked the participants to think about what they wanted to walk away with that night. Was it a contact name at a company they are seeking employment with? A collaborative partner for a project they are working on? Maybe to increase their LinkedIn professional network? Whatever their goal, it needed to be the main message in these brief conversations.
4. Have fun – What’s the point if no one is having a good time!

With participants facing each other, guidelines in place and stopwatch in hand, we were ready to begin. “Your three minutes starts.. NOW!” The room was singing with energy and all 82 participants were engaged. As promised, at the end of the 3-minute cycle we prompted the room to “rotate”… 3 minutes later “rotate” and then again to “roooootate”… you get the picture.

One very short hour later we called the last “rotate” and asked participants to conclude their final conversation. So what ensued after the 60-minute speed networking session… more networking! Could it be that this type of exercise helps you feel more comfortable talking to strangers, communicating a business need and building your social capital? YES!

The post session comments have lead us to believe that this was a very successful event and one that our members would like to participate in again. What are your thoughts? Did you meet anyone that will help you further a professional goal? Did the overall event meet your expectations? How can we improve next time?

Special thanks to Fiona Godsman of Nexxus Scotland for the idea.

To share this post easily, cut and paste: Speed Networking for Life Scientists http://bit.ly/d3P1ls

Photo by Karras Photography*

I had mentioned that I was hoping to get a personal interview with Francis Collins, newly appointed NIH director, during his visit to the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) meeting. Turns out Dr. Collins wasn’t available for a long interview, but I was able to meet him briefly after his engaging talk following Rudolf Jaenisch’s excellent keynote last night in San Diego.

Dr. Collins talked about his first 116 days as NIH director, including the work they’ve done to quickly process stimulus grants and disburse the funds and to provide important guidelines for stem cell research. The clear message of his 30 minute talk, which seemed to fly by due to his ‘charismatically humble’ style, was that we scientists, now more than ever, need to communicate the importance of our research more broadly so that we will continue to garner the necessary funding.

Dr. Collins likened his first few months as NIH director to ‘drinking from a fire hose on a roller coaster,’ partly due to the large number of the grants that were received as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Collins said they expected about 3,000 but instead received 20,000. Of the $10 Billion appropriated to NIH from the ARRA, $5 Billion was awarded by October 1st 2009 for 12,000 projects. It is estimated that 50,000 new jobs will be generated over two years. Collins indicated that the NIH will not be biased towards ‘big science’ under his leadership, as might be feared from his involvement in the human genome project. He pointed out the breadth of the ARRA funding, from The Cancer Genome Atlas to the ASCB’s proposed online image library.

Collins also talked about the amazing progress in stem cell research, triggered by President Obama’s signing of the Stem Cell Executive Order March 9th of this year. Since that time, the NIH has worked hard to publish guidelines and has very recently (Dec. 2) approved 13 human embryonic stem cell lines and is approving another 27 (Dec. 4–to be announced soon). You can learn more at http://stemcells.nih.gov/. Collins also discussed great NIH funding programs to encourage innovation through their High-Risk Research Initiatives.

Collins’ passion for science was clear as he urged scientists to get more involved in educating the public about the science that we do so that it continues to be funded. ASCB has set up a web page that makes it easy to get the word out–check out http://www.ascb.org/arra. Collins also talked National Lab Day, a non-profit group which aims to connect scientists and grade 6-12 students, create local communities to foster collaborations and improve the quality of science education. The website lists projects for which teachers need resources, and will also connect scientists with those that need their expertise. (Would this be a great charity event for the SDBN in 2010?)

It’s also clear that Collins is still engaged firsthand with science and scientists, as he enjoyed friendly chats with Rudolf Jaenisch and other ASCB members, and was seen heading towards the party after the session. He also has gone ‘outside of his comfort zone‘ to promote science. He was asked by Stephen Colbert to ‘take his glasses off and shake out his hair’ to make science ‘sexy,’ and Collins in turn asked the ASCB audience to do this as well. What he meant is that we should go outside of our comfort zones to promote the importance of our work. Tell our friends, neighbors, and politicians about what we’re doing and why it’s important, similar to the IamBiotech campaign which we’ve discussed. Collins suggested that one of the best ways is to invite your political representatives to tour your laboratory. Why not? He said they’ll likely view it as a refreshing opportunity to hear some good news about your work.

Personally, I was very inspired by Dr. Collins’ speech. It is clear that he is a scientist at heart, but not afraid to be creative and vocal in promoting science, and it is very encouraging to have someone like him at the ‘helm’ of the NIH. At SDBN events, we’ve talked about the increasing power of the individual or small business to make a difference. How can we be creative in our local industry and community to make a difference? Comments welcome below, and fill out the http://sdbn.org/2010poll to get involved!

To share this post easily use the URL http://bit.ly/68HJXN

*Photo courtesy of ASCB, generously provided by Karras Photography

**Updated April 14, 2011**

A few times over the last week or so, I’ve been asked how many life science companies are utilizing social media. I decided to make a list, and I also have some hints and shortcuts for you so that you can get a head start. In this post, I am focusing on companies that have physical or software products for life scientists and biotech companies not classified as healthcare (e.g., Monsanto). Note that I also have some personal genomics companies listed–they’re a bit of a grey area, but personally I’m very interested in them, so I’m including them. I’ll also show you how to find scientists in social media and blogs, as the list would be too lengthy here. There is a very nice, complementary list of pharma and healthcare social media that can be found on Dose of Digital kept up expertly by Jonathan Richman. Both lists are dynamic, feel free to leave a comment below to add your company, and I know Jonathan is open to updates to his list.

Life Science Companies Using Social Media

You’ll notice that many of the companies listed below are small, as social media is a great way for them to get exposure inexpensively. The larger companies are starting to be more active, and I have talked with a few who are working out policies and procedures to implement. There are some great examples of companies providing interesting information and helping customers. Also, there are some companies who simply post special offers and don’t seem to ‘get it,’ but I’m sure in time, they will. If you want to get updates from all of the companies easily, check out the Shortcut section for the RSS feeds and email updates.

Life Science Companies in Social Media

Shortcuts

When we had our ‘Social Media for Scientists‘ event in May, we discovered that many of you feel as though you don’t have the time for social media. How can we help? Well, nothing really substitutes for diving in and experiencing it yourself, but there are some shortcuts we can help you with. If you need help with RSS, check out this post/video.

Shortcuts for Scientists in Social Media

NOTE: Spammers are everywhere, so use caution. If you begin to get ‘direct messages’ from the people we are suggesting to follow on twitter, simply unfollow and block them.

We hope that you find these resources useful, and feel free to comment or give suggestions below. There are other resources for scientists on social media, and we will try to cover them here–this is just a start. If you work for a life science company, now is a great time to get started, contact Comprendia for a free consultation to learn more.

Share this post easily by using this URL: http://sdbn.org/sms

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!