Disruptive Innovations in Life Sciences – An Entrepreneurial Path to Value Creation
Alongside inventions from academic research-laboratories and innovations made in large companies, an ever-increasing number of entrepreneurial innovations are emanating from newly formed ventures. Once viewed as a minor factor, increasingly startups are becoming the dominant market conduit for breakthrough scientific discoveries and new technologies. This talk will use, as examples, recently created ventures, Moderna Therapeutics (mRNA-based therapeutics), Seres Health (Ecobiotics to treat the Gut Microbiome) and Pronutria (Pharmaconutrient proteins), to illustrate how these disruptive innovations are enabling valuable healthcare products.
Entrepreneurship is classically viewed as a highly individualistic act, involving low odds of success, great unpredictability, unbounded optimism and improvisation. Based on personal experiences from co-founding 25 startup ventures in as many years within the life sciences field, I will argue that entrepreneurship is maturing from its roots as a cottage industry and becoming a new profession. If true, new models of education (in academia and practice), organization and financing will be needed. One such organizational innovation is Flagship VentureLabs, a unique platform to institutionalize the processes of technology-based entrepreneurship with the objective of maximizing the speed, economics and success rate of new ventures. This talk will also describe the process by which Moderna, Seres, Pronutria and many other startups were conceived and developed following a novel, innovation paradigm based on evolution and emergence.
Dr Noubar Afeyan
Managing Partner and CEO
Noubar Afeyan is founder, Managing Partner and CEO of Flagship Ventures, a leading early stage venture capital firm. He also leads the firm’s VentureLabs unit that invents and launches transformative startups. He is a Senior Lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management where he has taught courses on technology-entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership since 2000. Dr. Afeyan has authored numerous scientific publications and patents since earning his Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering from MIT in 1987. He lectures widely in the United States and internationally on diverse topics ranging from entrepreneurship, innovation and venture capital to biological engineering, drug discovery, medical technologies and renewable energy.
During his 25-year career as inventor, entrepreneur, CEO and venture capitalist, Dr. Afeyan has co-founded and helped build 26 successful life science and technology startups. He was founder and CEO of PerSeptive Biosystems, a leader in the bio-instrumentation field that grew to over $100M in annual sales within six years from its first sales. After PerSeptive’s acquisition by Perkin Elmer/Applera Corporation in 1998, he was Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer of Applera, where he initiated and oversaw the creation of Celera Genomics.
Currently Dr. Afeyan serves on a number of public and private company boards including Affinnova, BIND Therapeutics, BG Medicine, Eleven Biotherapeutics, Joule Unlimited, Moderna Therapeutics and Pronutria. Previously, he was a member of the founding team, director and investor in several highly successful ventures including Chemgenics Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Millennium Pharmaceuticals), Color Kinetics (acquired by Philips), and Adnexus Therapeutics (acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb).
Dr. Afeyan received a Technology Pioneer 2012 award from the World Economic Forum in recognition of the breakthrough solar fuel technology being developed at Joule Unlimited. He currently serves as Chairman of the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies of the World Economic Forum. He is a member of the Board of Overseers of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he is co-founder and board member of the National Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia, a private-public partnership to promote economic development in the former Soviet Republic of Armenia, and he serves on the board of AmeriaBank, a leading bank in Armenia. In 2008 he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, an award granted to outstanding Americans who have distinguished themselves as United States citizens and who have enabled their ancestry groups to maintain their identities while becoming integral parts of American life.
REGISTER NOW!
For further information, contact IGHI’s Communications and Events Officer, Jo Seed – j.seed@imperial.ac.uk tel 0207 594 1484