FCP201 2017...and so it begins, again!

Wednesday is the first session for students registered for the Faculty wide module that we refer to locally as Molecules to Market. Here is a little taste of what you should expect on a course aimed at providing you with an introduction to the challenges of the  commercial side of Science. You can also take a look at the Blog archive, which contains some general information about enterprise, together with some case histories. I shall use this forum to provide additional support and interest (hopefully) for you as you begin your journey into the world of enterprise. Let me start with a Biotechnology story that will hopefully give you a flavour of the module. I will also look in future posts at the way in which enterprise impacts on Physics, Chemistry, Psychology and Maths, as well as the non-Biotech related Life Sciences. 


From Victorian era medicine to one of the major challenges of the NHS, and other global health organisations today, diabetes remains a major focus of the Pharmaceutical Industry. In 1869, a 22 year old doctoral student, Paul Langerhans gave his name to the insulin producing cells of the pancreas. In the contemporary image on the right, the red cells are packed with insulin. Soon after this compound began to emerge, as a major factor in diabetes. Twenty year later two physiologists removed the pancreas from a dog, which resulted in a massive increase in glucose in the dog's urine. Shortly after, insulin was identified as a likely candidate (from biochemical fractionation of canine pancreatic extracts), as the major factor in diabetes. During the 1920s, a group led by Fred Banting in Toronto, demonstrated that diabetic dogs, made by pancreas removal, could be rescued by insulin extracts from cows, in the form of daily injections. It was at this point that the extract received the household name of insulin. Banting and Macleod were subsequently awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. 

Turning a pancreatic extract into a global drug. Take a step back for a minute and fast forward to 2017! The marketing of drugs in the Western World is highly regulated, which was a silver lining after the disastrous release of thalidomide over 50 years ago. Today, if you were proposing to inject bovine (or later porcine) pancreatic extracts into humans, there would be a long process of evaluation, trials and litigation barriers that would have to be overcome. In fact a new drug, typically takes around 10-15 years to reach the clinic. So here we have this crude, but enriched pancreatic extract that has huge clinical value, waiting to be used. In fact by 1922, before the ink could dry in Banting's lab book, Eli Lilly had begun manufacturing and distributing insulin for the treatment of Type I diabetes. You can read about insulin and its mode of action here.

The beginnings of the Pharmaceutical Industry. Eli Lilley were formed just after the American Civil War and during the post World War I period they brought both Penicillin and Insulin to the world. Today they are the biggest sellers of Prozac. They are currently the fourteenth biggest Pharmaceutical company (by revenues) in the world. You can see the others here. Eli Lilley made their fortunes injecting patients exhibiting symptoms of Type I diabetes with a pig extract. What's more, from a purely financial perspective, once you have satisfied everyone that insulin works, the company has a clientele that buys repeat prescriptions and continues to do so until they die. This is a good business plan! Now think about the business plan that underlies the influenza, or flu vaccine. I shall discuss this on Wednesday. Think also about the fact that it was around 20 years after insulin was in regular use, that Fred Sanger determined its amino acid sequence, and nearly another 20 years before we knew what the molecule looked like in 3D. It is difficult to imagine this situation today. You may also want to consider (see below) why Malaria is still being treated with quinine, nearly 200 years after Lilli marketed the compound, while the investment in new antimalarials remains a major problem.

The dawning of the molecular cloning era and the transformation of the Pharmaceutical Industry. Genentech were established around 40 years ago as the first Biotech Company, in California. In 1983, just 7 years after they were founded, they were selling cloned human insulin! Genetech are now part of Roche, but their specialist and pioneering knowledge in the field of Molecular Biology enabled them to build a business that was acquired by Roche in 2009 for just under $50 billion! We are now in a new world of high cost drugs, developed out of high tech molecular cell biology. However, as you will come to appreciate, the cost of drug discovery, development and clinical trials is not sustainable. Similarly, in order to meet the challenge of diseases in the poorer nations, under business conditions were profits are very low, or even negative, such as malaria, we must rethink medicines in the future. 

Are you a future entrepreneur? The aim of this module is not to provide you with a detailed academic programme of enterprise lectures, but rather to make you think about Science, business and your employment future in a new way. Most entrepreneurs in small start ups are "Jacks of all trades", they are not experts in any one thing, but they do all exude a strong personal drive and motivation and in fact, one student from last year's course has already set up a chocolate drinks business back in his home town in Kenya, which he is currently managing while completing his third year in Sheffield! In MBB! SO I am looking forward to increasing the numbers this year.  See you on Wednesday!
 

Molecules to Market finale for FCP201 Students

Last week, second year Faculty of Science students presented their business posters for assessment in the University's (relatively) newly refurbished Council Room. The sun was shining, the room was buzzing and we were fortunate to have Dr. Geoff Wainwright from 2Bio (that's their "impact science" logo left), along to provide a professional level of interrogation! As in previous years, student teams, or as we call them committees, will have spent a semester developing an initial idea into a robust business plan. Some ideas fall by the wayside and some become tweaked and re-worked until the idea seems reasonable enough to stand up and defend. Readers of my earlier posts will be aware of the range of assessment instruments used when delivering Mols2Mkt to students at different levels. The most advance assessments come in multiple parts and include submission of detailed business plans, marketing and promotion materials and videos, but for level two undergraduates, with a"catchment" that may include undergraduates from any of the seven departments from the University of Sheffield's Science Faculty, the poster session works really well. 

This year, 11 committees formed the same number of companies and the biggest difference from previous years has been the development of Science Education ventures. Two committees chose quite different approaches to promoting engagement in Science in schools. The other companies included anti-aging solutions (both Pharmaceutical and Personal Care related), companies in the AMR domain for detection of microbes versus viruses and the development of novel anti-microbials....not to mention an interesting take on the opportunity to provide healthy burgers from stem cell advances. (I shall update the post, with a gallery of this year's posters, now that the assessment is over). 

This year's winners were the educational outreach organisation called Science Ignite, whose innovative ideas and enthusiastic commitment to taking experimental Science (from Physics to Biology) into schools was palpable. As a reward, the team will be invited to a large school on Merseyside to trial their ideas. I am hoping we can keep this momentum going into their third year as well. The more young science undergraduates that engage in education, the better! Those teams who missed out on the Winners' Enclosure, will be invited to a session delivered by 2Bio after the summer vacation, providing a deeper insight into the world of spin outs and IP in today's economic and technological climate, thanks to our judge Dr. Geoff Wainwright. 

What were the judges looking for on the day? As you can tell from the brief account of the company ideas, a diversity of ideas prevailed. This is usually the case. So the judges are not usually that concerned about the area of Science, but rather about the team (an impression that has to be conveyed in around 20 minutes), the appeal of the poster, the enthusiasm of the presenters and the way they demonstrate their engagement with the concept. In fact, I have never seen any evidence that business ideas and start ups are advantaged by age and experience. In fact quite the opposite, some 15 year old school students are capable of formulating an idea and developing a convincing business case that is as good as many that comes from experienced academics or inventors.

It was clear on the day that most students engaged with the course, although most only ever means at best 85%. In view of the fact that the course relies heavily on the development of a team spirit, the emergence of a team leader and a general interest in Science: students who prefer the conventional lecture format to learning, are generally the 15% or so. It is important to recognise of course that this teaching format doesn't work for everyone, but I do take the view that we must expose our undergraduates (and school students) to these situations, for at least some of their time before they leave University or School. After all, at Sheffield, in a department like my own, where the major part of our undergraduate coursework is delivered in the form of laboratory classes and projects; a few student led modules can only help with their preparation for life after exams!

Ever since I first introduced this method into teaching into the Department nearly ten years ago, I have become increasingly convinced by its value. Perhaps the most important consequence is that this approach promotes an holistic approach to course material.Hopefully creating a new wave of polymaths! It amazes me how many students choose a scientific basis of their business that is outside of the curriculum material and yet in doing so, can draw on core material in a way that they rarely do "these days" (or so it seems to me and my network of colleagues). Somehow, this approach seems to capture the imagination of the majority of the students and this is followed by a strong motivation to learn in a way that complements our more traditional teaching methods.

The course is delivered by a small team that includes MBB staff, Emma and Liz and a small number of "guests" who provide enterprise related master-classes, which we tend to vary year by year in order to keep the course as vibrant as possible. So thanks to all who have played a role, but mostly to everyone who created such impressive ideas and made this year's Molecules to Market another memorable experience.