By Max Klietmann, VP of Marketing, LSN
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of attending The FasterCures Partnering for Cures conference in New York City. This excellent event is focused on accelerating science in order to improve patient outcomes across the board. In attendance were major thought leaders, investors, philanthropic organizations, and life science innovators from around the world. A broad spectrum of topics was covered, but a primary theme that resurfaced (both in panel discussions and in my conversations during the partnering and networking sessions) is the idea of revolutionizing philanthropic engagement in innovative science.
One of the principal issues at play is the fact that top tier academic research too rarely makes its way to patients’ bedsides and doesn’t have much impact beyond some publications. We are truly in the golden age of science – technologies with almost unfathomable potential to impact diseases are emerging at an incredible pace. However, there simply isn’t enough capital being deployed strategically in the right place at the right time to move the science forward.
I was able to speak to a broad range of endowments, foundations, family offices, patient groups and other philanthropic organizations at the event on this subject, and was able to glean some interesting ideas from these exchanges. A few of these entities have really begun to translate their urgency into action. Noble intentions drive philanthropic action, but the business model is being re-evaluated. At the end of the day, bringing more therapies to market is what changes lives. One of the ways to accomplish that is having a foundation or endowment that focuses on supporting product commercialization. Based on the discussions I had over the last few months, I believe there are two primary elements required to successfully create a next generation philanthropy:
Focus on measurable outcomes: The most important variable in ensuring the success of the next generation of philanthropic organizations is an understanding of the full process of therapeutic development, and a firm grasp of how to move a product to the next level. Each philanthropy needs to know its strengths, and what actions it should focus on to join the effort. These actions should be accurately measurable, and focused on outcomes rather than inputs. In other words, philanthropists need to be able to say “we moved so-and-so many compounds into phase I trials” not “we gave so-and-so much money to academic research.”
Skin in the game: No matter how badly a philanthropic organization wishes to do good, it is always a challenge to align the intentions of a non-profit with a commercial product. However, venture philanthropy is a potential solution to the problem. By taking an equity stake via an evergreen fund (or another direct investment structure), organizations can be better incentivized to focus on research that can be commercialized. This is a key element in avoiding the all-too-common tragedy of great science staying in academia as journal publication material, without ever actually helping patients.
Philanthropic organizations are beginning to understand that their true value is as a catalyst for innovation, and those that are most successful in the future are the ones that adapt. Philanthropic organizations now have a choice to make – Either continue to fund academic research via grants, or find a way to make an active commitment to moving that science down the pipeline and into patients’ hands.
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