The bioscience industry and the state’s quasi-public investment arm Connecticut Innovations are developing a program to help researchers bridge the so-called Valley of Death, in order to create more companies and bring more drugs to market.
The proposed program — developed by Craig Crews, head of Crews Laboratory at Yale University — asks CI to provide capital to help scientists turn their research into actual drug applications and start companies under a project called Program in Innovative Therapeutics for Connecticut’s Health (PITCH). CI has been supportive of the proposal, although it is still finalizing the details.
“To be very, very clear, we want to start companies,” Crews said. “The majority of these proposals would have commercial applications if we are able to do the research.”
PITCH would plug a major funding gap in the bioscience industry experienced by companies in Connecticut and across the country, Crews said. Government grants from the likes of the National Institutes of Health help fund scientific research but not advanced stage market applications, while private-sector financiers like venture capitalists typically only invest in less risky, proven applications with businesses that are already started. Crews calls this gap between government grants and venture funding the Valley of Death, in which research never turns into real-world applications.
“We would like to set up a collaboration statewide that would help us overcome this Valley of Death,” Crews said. Crews made his comments at the StemConn industry conference on April 27 in Hartford.
Crews told the StemConn crowd the business of bioscience is often seen as the dark side of an industry focusing largely on research, but scientists need to be thinking about real-world applications for their work, especially since interest in early-stage research and development at major biopharmaceutical companies is waning. Crews said big pharma increasingly prefers to acquire small drug development companies rather than do its own research, leaving the majority of the risk and cost for drug development to the investment community.
Crews, a Yale chemistry, pharmacology and biology professor, famously co-founded a company called Proteolix thanks to a $100,000 grant he received from Yale for research into a bone marrow cancer drug. He later sold the company to Onyx Pharmaceuticals for $851 million.
Under the proposal pending before CI, Crews wants to develop a program at UConn and Yale where academic labs would pitch research ideas that would be vetted for their business viability by an external board of industry professionals. The research would then be developed at UConn or Yale with the focus on creating companies that can then go out and look for private capital.
CI’s Connecticut Bioscience Innovation Fund advisory committee heard the PITCH proposal on April 15 and was supportive of the idea, said Lauren Carmody, spokeswoman for CI. The committee is negotiating the details — including the total investment amount — before it forwards the proposal to the CI board of directors for final approval.
CT research
Beyond Crews’ proposal, the StemConn conference showcased a significant amount of stem cell research happening around Connecticut.
Frank McKeon, who along with his partner Wa Xian was the first to spin off a startup from Jackson Laboratory in Farmington into an UConn incubator startup, said their research into stem cell applications to treat lung and gastrointestinal problems yielded the company MultiClonal Therapeutics. Eventually the company could help with ailments like cystic and liver fibrosis.
“These are the things we have to go after,” McKeon said.
Students and faculty researchers showcased their various proposals on stem cell treatments, looking at ailments like cleft palates, brain tumors, autism, nervous system disorders, missing limbs, and lung damage.
Wesleyan University neuroscience and behavior professor Gloster Aaron discussed his research showing how stem cell injections could relieve epileptic seizures. His study is funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Connecticut Stem Cell Research Grant, and Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy. Wesleyan researchers have been injecting stem cells in mice’s brains and are seeing a reduction in seizures about 60 days after the treatment started, Aaron said.
“We are going to keep going on this study to expand on this research,” Aaron said. “We hope that seizure suppression will be very, very long term.”
Crews said the type of research being discussed at StemConn is a good example of work that can have real-world applications, but scientists should be thinking about how to bring those ideas to market.
“This is the part of the science that people don’t talk about,” Crews said.
UConn representatives were at StemConn to pitch the school’s newly formed Accelerate UConn program, which is funded by a $300,000 National Science Foundation grant to foster entrepreneurship and create businesses.
UConn is launching the program this month and becoming an official NSF I-Corps Site, promoting technology transfer.
“We are trying to get scientists to think more about business,” said Rita Zangari, UConn director of innovation programs at the Office of the Vice President of Research.
