“‘Innovation is the new currency’ is a catchphrase that we’ve been hearing more and more lately,” said Jeanne Mell (Vice President, Marketing Communications & Community Engagement, University City Science Center) during her introduction to the inaugural Innovation Row, featured at the DIA 2016 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
“Smaller companies that are interested in sharing their innovations with you and getting feedback from the investment community,” are represented here, explained Jonathan Commons, DIA Senior Vice President, Marketing & Business Development during his opening comments to this session. Seven entrepreneurial organizations were each allocated a 30-second video and a three minute overview presentation to showcase their entrepreneurial work in life science product development.
Following the presentations was a question and answer period led by a panel of leading life science investors. “At the Science Center, we’ve been incubating companies in the life sciences and emerging technologies long before the term ‘business incubation’ was even coined. We just concluded an economic impact study which shows that more than 440 companies got their start at the Science Center, or received incubation services from us, and 155 of them are still active in the Greater Philadelphia region and doing amazing things,” Mell later explained.
“Philly’s wonderful burgeoning start-up scene, which is really blossoming, and our historical strength in life sciences, in education and medicine, made the city a natural place to launch Innovation Row.”
“Innovation Row was a wonderful opportunity for local companies to be able to showcase what they’re working on to a wider audience; DIA attracts global attendance, so that exposure was fabulous. On the flipside, DIA attendees were able to see the diversity of innovation in things that are happening right here in Philadelphia,” Mell said.
PRESENTING ORGANIZATIONS
BrackenData
BrackenData aims to help sponsors with clinical trial analytics through a highly flexible search process that provides weekly updates of new trials, and facilitates protocol eligibility criteria evaluation, both within and across specific therapeutic areas or product classes.
ePatient Enroll
ePatient Enroll provides a platform that connects ePatients with as many clinical trial activities as possible; upfront patient input into study site feasibility or protocol development, for example, can prevent subsequent protocol amendments, which saves time and money.
Mana Health
Mana Health offers a secure, HIPAA-compliant cloud platform-as-a-service that unifies patient data from electronic health records, mobile apps and devices, in an integrated portal designed to align with the emerging paradigm shift to value-based payment and care.
The One Health Company
Pets get cancer ten times more frequently than people, and many pet cancers recapitulate this disease in humans. The One Health Company connects veterinary oncologists and owners of stricken pets with veterinary clinical trials (the conversion rate of owners asked to allow their pets to participate in such trials is 64%), providing solid natural disease models for human drug research.
Patient Genesis
Informed consent means the impartment of knowledge, not just a digital signature. Patient Genesis aims to digitize this process through software that allows clinicians, nurses and study coordinators to create and share study knowledge with patients, improving protocol comprehension and compliance.
Research Hive
As much as 85% of clinical trial cost can be tracked back to schedule delays and extensions. Research Hive provides a point to point communication tool from doctors to study coordinators to patients, simultaneously enhancing the patient research experience and increasing data quality.
ThoughtSphere
We spend too much time on accessing and aggregating clinical, operational and other data in the plethora of clinical and industry silos, and have too many ways to do so. ThoughtSphere’s product suite includes a data aggregation platform, an interactive visualization and analytics platform, and an integrated study site contracting, budget, and payment solution.
Yuzu Labs
To accelerate clinical research by increasing its efficiency, YuzuLabs offers a softwareas-a-service clinical study recruitment platform and a solution for scheduling within and between clinical study sites.
“Organizations like the Science Center and other tech-based economic development groups that are working to help companies pull their technologies out of the lab and into the marketplace, can help DIA make the connections that will strengthen the innovation ecosystem nationwide,” Mell concluded.
“As a member of the PHL CVB’s Board of Directors and Philadelphia’s life sciences and innovation community, I was absolutely delighted that DIA chose Philadelphia to launch Innovation Row. Please come back – we’d love to see you again!”
