There’s a booming market for new ideas in biotech, and as an entrepreneur or company executive, your choices for developing an idea into a successful—and lucrative—business can seem dizzying. But there’s one thing every successful company has discovered: it takes a special combination of passion, strategy, partners, and talent to prosper. So, what do you do to get there? Follow “The Trailblazer Series: Secrets for a Biotech Breakthrough,” a four-part webinar series from Xconomy Insights and EBD Group, sponsored by Covance, for valuable insights and advice from leading industry experts and entrepreneurs making their biotech dreams come alive.
You’ll hear how to:
- Expertly guide your company from the initial phases through a successful exit
- Create a strategy, structure, and solution that’s attractive to prospective buyers or partners
- Determine whether it makes sense to source your research in-house or with a partner
- Identify the right funding model for your company that will simplify the exit and produce optimal financial results
- Determine whether your unique approach to innovation matches best with a plug-and-play venture model or a custom one
Webinar 1 - “Biotech Chat: What the Experts Forgot to Tell Me About Getting Started”
Wednesday, June 20, 2018, 1:00 PM EDT
In the first installment of the four-part “The Trailblazer Series: Secrets for a Biotech Breakthrough” webinar series, we talk to a few entrepreneurs who’ve successfully launched businesses provide an informative and entertaining perspective on how to get a biotech firm off the ground, including valuable first-person advice. These leaders will discuss the processes for starting a company that they had to learn on their own and share ideas for protecting assets and technology innovations to reduce the likelihood of imitation by competitors. They’ll help you understand how to start mapping out the resources you’ll need to get your fledgling company off the ground and help you understand what options are available to you so you can prepare your company—from the beginning—for today’s creative funding solutions.
In this webinar, we’ll cover:
- Which resources you’ll need to get launched and how to acquire them
- How successful entrepreneurs keep the end-game in sight, even from the very beginning
- Which funding models are available that best fit your unique business needs
- Ways to protect your intellectual property and capital to avoid a loss of value
- How to plan for, and mitigate, risk along with your startup journey
This webinar is available on demand.
Webinar 2 - “The CRO Advantage: Research Partnerships for Biotech Success”
Wednesday, July 18, 2018, 01:00 PM EDT
Even the very best ideas may struggle to become successful biotech companies without the right partnerships. One of the biggest costs for emerging biotech companies is funding research, and in many cases, it may not make sense to try to go it alone. Contract research organizations, or CROs, can provide critical assistance in such areas as clinical research, pharma development, and trial management for startup companies that simply don’t have the resources to produce their own research in a timely or cost-efficient manner. In this second installment of the four-part “Biotech Road to Success,” you’ll discover that for all new companies, being able to focus on core initiatives is paramount, and partnerships with market experts can alleviate much of the cost, time, and risk that can jeopardize the journey to success.
In this webinar, we’ll address:
- Which specific partnership models and development approaches can save you time and money and reduce risks
- How to determine whether your company is a candidate for outsourcing some of your development, research, or testing and which tasks best align with partnering
- What kind of competitive advantages you can gain by partnering on research, including speed to market, economies of scale, and assistance with regulatory issues
- How to choose a partner that offers the specialized services unique to your company’s needs
- The right strategy for entering into and dissolving partnerships so they align best with your company’s progress
This webinar is available on demand.
Webinar 3 - “The Digital Approach to Optimizing Clinical Trials”
Wednesday, August 15, 2018 01:00 PM EDT
For emerging biotech companies, the time and effort in getting clinical trials up and running can be frustrating, but many drug developers are turning to new technologies and strategies for streamlining their trials. Traditional lab approaches that focused on physical testing are being replaced by technologies like AI, machine learning, and virtual reality, speeding results and improving patient experience and outcomes. In the third installment of the “The Trailblazer Series: Secrets for a Biotech Breakthrough” webinar series, our panel of experts will discuss the latest innovations in digital technologies that are completely changing the game in clinical trials. They’ll outline what emerging companies should understand about this groundbreaking field and the advantages —and risks—associated with entrusting your business to these new approaches.
In this webinar, you’ll hear:
- How AI, wearables, telemedicine, and blockchain promise to speed up patient recruitment and improve the entire trial process
- Why digitalization will not only improve the data analysis side of trials, but also help companies identify the best patients for their specific clinical trial
- How this new approach to trials will impact your own workforce and provide them with better skills, resources, and results
- Ways that digitalization for clinical trials can help your company better predict outcomes, shortening the process for discovery and speeding commercialization of your products
Webinar 4 -“Biotech Success Stories: Achieving Value From Your Company”
Wednesday, September 26, 2018, 01:00 PM EDT
In the final installment of the four-part webinar series, “The Trailblazer Series: Secrets for a Biotech Breakthrough,” select entrepreneurs with successful outcomes take the series full circle by explaining the unique paths they took to achieve their desired results, providing insight into the monetization plans that worked and the risks involved. Included in the discussion will be important lessons about positioning potential breakouts, identifying and embracing the right funding strategies, applying resources judiciously, avoiding risks, and keeping the end-game in sight.
In this session, we’ll discuss:
- Ways of identifying the right buyer or in-licensor, and developing a collaborative and mutually beneficial partnership for success
- The importance of being patient and understanding that the exit point with the highest returns may be further along the development path than expected
- Which strategies may be most effective for your own unique business and experience, such as acquisition, selling to a buyer, liquidation, public markets, and more
- How to avoid risky and poorly-developed offers for monetizing your company
