Transcript The Power of Convergence

“The Power Of
Convergence”
Murray Wigmore
Executive Director
YORK biotech Mission
The mission of York biotech is to act as a catalyst
to harness the wealth of intellectual and technical
Mission
resources to promote economic success and growth
of the biotechnology industry as a key strategy for
economic development in our region
BCIP Regions, CMA-CA and CDs
Timmins
Greater Sudbury
North Bay
Elliot Lake
Ottawa
Sault Ste. Marie
Brockville
Peterborough
Kingston
Guelph-Waterloo
Golden Horseshoe
Peterborough
Windsor
Northern Ontario
Toronto Consortium
York Regional Consortium
Mississauga
Ottawa and Eastern Region
No Data
Kingston
Belleville
Barrie
Toronto
Guelph
Hamilton
London
Sarnia
CMA - CA boundary
St. Catharines Niagara
Thunder Bay
#
Chatham-Kent
Windsor
Data source: Ontario Biotechnology Secretariat, Life Science and Technologies Branch
Ministry of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation, Government of Ontario, Sept. 2003
SIEID - EASD, Statitsics Canada, 09/03
York Biotech
•
•
37 affiliates that span four key
sectors: companies (SMEs and
MNEs); Academia and hospitals;
Governments (local, provincial,
federal); And associations
“YRBC will focus on creating a
strategy that will drive initiatives
which will provide value to all
affiliates”
Vision I
Barrie
YTA
MEDEC
HTX
York Region
Markham
AOMM
Networking
ISCM
Infrastructure
Venn Growth
Financial support
Business support
York Biotech
RBC
YRDSB
Sunnybrook
York U
Education and Research
Seneca
Government funding
Global markets
IBM
Sinofi-Pasteur
MEDT
Other
MDS
NRC
SME
MNE
The Importance of Clusters
• A cluster is a group of interrelated companies,
organizations, associations, academic
institutions, suppliers, service provides, etc. of a
particular field located in the same geographical
area
• Clusters promote regional economic and
knowledge growth
• Benefits of clusters:
–
–
–
–
Accelerate the pace of innovation
Attract investment
Stimulate job creation
Generate wealth
Everyone Is Claiming
“Convergent Technology”
• Bio-informatics, proteomics in bio/pharma
drug discovery
• Photonics and mass spec in Proteomics
• Pharmaceutical coated stents
• Robotic surgery and communications
• Telemedicine, EPR and PACS
• Supercomputing and 3D realtime
visualization
• Nanotechnology in biosensors and
drug/gene therapy delivery
Convergent Medical Technology
– Synergistic “intermingling” of 2 or more distinct technologies
creating a new, hybrid device, process or product applied in
health prevention, screening, diagnosis, therapy, monitoring
or functional enhancement.
– At its simplest, the synergy results in improvement
in the existing mode of action of an incumbent
technology or one essentially unaltered product
used in conjunction with another.
– At its most sophisticated, the synergy produces a new MOA
distinct from each component technology with, in some
cases, a “disruptive” level of performance, representing an
entirely new class of applications.
This implies several classes of CMT
• CT Devices/Systems: a CMT which directly applies
the combined technologies (e.g. Light-activated
pharmaceuticals; in-vivo nanotech sensors or robotic
surgery)
• CT Manufacturing: a new material / device
/biologic/pharmaceutical created by a convergent
manufacturing process
• CT Targeting: Use of one technology to target the
use of another…but by themselves neither the
targeting nor drug would be effective (e.g. patientspecific chemotherapy sensitivity or drug resistance
assessment)
Companies/researchers
Smell a
“Funding Frenzy”
• Potential for “convergence” to attract a portion
of the ballooning biotech, Nanotech or new
funding.
• Perceived as the next “big thing.”
– Biotech Internet (dot coms).
– Convergent technology.
Technology Life Cycles
Biotech, Protemics
Active Devices
Bioinformatics
Advanced Materials
Big Pharma,
Passive Devices
1900
Convergent
Technology
Faster Innovation
Faster Diffusion
1970
2000
Convergence
Combination Examples
• Telerobotic surgery.
– Robotic surgery + Telecomms.
• Surgical simulation.
– Natural extensions of existing imaging
procedures.
• Coated stents.
– Stents and Paclitaxel both work
independently and are just used together.
Tomorrow’s CT Leaders Are...
• Creating interdisciplinary teams
• Identifying alliance suitable partners
• Able to articulate the importance of
convergence to their technology strategy
• Clear on the proportion of risk capital to
devote to convergent technology