For generations, universities have been a hub of healthcare innovation. Their research has led to groundbreaking discoveries, breakthroughs, and innovative treatments and technologies.
Increasingly, research and innovations are being fast-tracked via a university-based startup ecosystem.
This shift is a promising response to challenges faced by the healthcare industry, including lengthy development timelines, complex regulations, and high capital requirements that often deter traditional entrepreneurs. The new system is accelerating the time to bring new treatments to market, helping to address challenges in clinical trials and offering hope to patients.
Addressing global health challenges necessitates that we do more to support “university healthcare startups” in continuing critical research and addressing healthcare challenges. Universities possess distinct advantages: scientific expertise, cutting-edge research facilities, access to clinical networks, and the ability to take a long-term view on complex problems that the market might overlook. Rather than research and licensing intellectual property to companies, leading academic institutions can cultivate the infrastructure, talent, and capital needed to launch breakthrough healthcare ventures.
This hybrid of research and capital is transforming research and business for the better at hubs like Weill Cornell Medicine, Stanford’s Healthcare Innovation Lab, and the University of Texas at Austin’s Discovery to Impact. At Berkeley, the Life Science Entrepreneurship Venture Grant Program offers a $100k grant plus up to $200k SkyDeck Fund research investment for campus based companies moving towards commercialization.
The Venture Grant program also rewards access to a wide variety of UC Berkeley resources, including workshops and more. SkyDeck is one of the most competitive accelerators in the world, and Venture Grant recipients can access a network of 800-plus advisors, 50 startup-supporting workshops, and more than 500,000 UC Berkeley alums.
This program has seeded many emerging companies, among them AsparaGlue (a startup that has developed a superglue-like medical adhesive for external wound closure and internal tissue adhesion), Editpep (a company working to cure disease using a peptide based delivery technology) as well as HypO2Regen (more on them below). Here are three things we’ve learned about building a healthcare startup support system on campus.
- Package Funding and Resources: One of the best ways universities can help kick-start healthcare startups and finance healthcare is through novel grant and award packages. Grants often just come with a check attached. It’s better to view grants as a comprehensive package of funding, training, resources, and mentoring that will enable research and innovation to transform into companies and improve health outcomes.
We have adopted this approach at the Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center. To qualify for the Venture Grant Program, teams must be composed of at least two members from Berkeley faculty, PhD students, postdoctoral scholars, or graduate students in biosciences, business, or engineering. They must be ready to establish a company. Their innovation must be in the life sciences field and based on intellectual property (IP) invented at Berkeley. This year’s recipient, HypO2Regen Therapeutics, is developing and bringing to market disease-modifying drug therapeutics for chronic intractable inflammatory diseases. This includes the first cell-free stem cell treatment to induce true regeneration of tissues damaged by chronic inflammation.
- Focus on Urgent Health Needs: Healthcare startups at universities address different problems than their counterparts in Silicon Valley. Many Silicon Valley companies begin with the primary goal of a successful acquisition or IPO. Universities focus on critical matters, including combating disease, developing technologies that can save lives, and harnessing data and science to democratize access to healthcare. University-based startups are focusing on addressing unmet medical needs rather than optimizing existing markets, developing platform technologies rather than point solutions, and building businesses around scientific breakthroughs rather than software innovations. University-based entrepreneurs also understand regulatory pathways, clinical validation requirements, and the intricacies of healthcare markets.
University startups also have a track record of results. Several healthcare startups at universities have gone on to not only be enormously successful but to offer hope or even change the world. Moderna, one of the companies that created a COVID-19 vaccine, has strong ties to the University of Pennsylvania. AIQSolution was founded at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and created a platform to predict patient response to cancer. There are hundreds of examples of companies like this that started on campus.
- Work Outside Expected Avenues: Universities must explore new potential funding partnerships to ensure science remains at the forefront. By adopting a VC spirit to campus research, budding entrepreneurs can ensure that both healthcare and science stay ahead of policy changes. Universities can now look to venture capital (VC) funding and other revenue sources, in addition to navigating a more challenging grant process.
Universities have been research and innovation hubs for centuries. That mission has not changed. However, a willingness to refocus and streamline health research on campus will benefit all. Patients will be able to access life-changing treatments and technology earlier. Scientists will create integrated support systems that span from early-stage research through commercial launch, effectively becoming launch pads for the next generation of healthcare innovation. Healthcare will be better and stronger.
Darren Cooke
Darren Cooke is Interim Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurship Officer at UC Berkeley.
