by Tony Chen

You know those conferences you go to where the seminars are kinda stale, the networking is okay, and you end up having dinner by yourself? Well, this AUTM conference is NOT one of those (or maybe it's because I'm sincerely interested in this stuff!)

It has been a very enlightening day listening to industry giants (Cisco, Intel, Genentech, etc), small-start ups (Nanosys), and Angel investors talk about how they want to work with universities and hospitals. They inherently realize (maybe more than we do) that there is genius within our walls, and they need to mine it.

What I am enjoying the most is the variety of people here. Normally, you go to something like this and it's groupthink galore. Everyone's the same. Some are ahead of others a bit, but overall everyone's basically in the same world. Today I've talked to someone at Genentech about how they review their incoming licensing proposals. I talked to an angel investor who's turned 4 IPOS and is interested in healthcare wikis and blogging (will be meeting up with him tomorrow morning). I talked to this BD guy at a company that does a few licensing deals a day. I spoke to a fellow Kellogg Alum who's part of the 80-person tech transfer office for the NIH.

It's true that tech transfer probably only applies to a handful of hospitals. Nonetheless, I counted (and emailed) about 50 attendees who are from hospitals, AMCs, and clinics. It's a world completely separate and far off from our world of DRGs, capitation, and bad debt. But in many ways, it's the same - understanding need & meeting it in sustainable way.

A couple of uncategorized insights that I picked up today:
- This one angel investor who's funded 30 successful start-ups asks 4 simple questions in funding a new biz: does the science work? can I protect it (IP or otherwise)? Can I find people who feel the pain that the biz will solve? Can I attract a motivated management team?
- There are a lot of deals that have gone bad out there, and a lot of bad feelings about it. When the industry panel spoke candidly about terms, agreements, requirements, the university folks were getting pretty riled up. Imagine a conference in which payors were the speakers and they told you what they need to survive. Hey ACHE, at your next Congress, why don't you have a session with payers. How about a session with a patient panel!? a physician panel?
- Too many people treat tech transfer marketing like a shotgun. We need to tailor/customize each communication for each potential partner, speaking to their strategy/needs.
- Companies like Cisco have more money to spend on licensing than they can spend. The issue isn't a lack of funds, the issue is finding the ideas & not letting terms stop the show