QB3 Global Bio-Entrepreneurship Course

Background

Building Capabilities in Developing Biotech Economies

Entrepreneurship is fast becoming one of the primary economic drivers around the world. The San Francisco Bay Area is well-recognized as the top ecosystem for creating and financing new ventures. Since the emergence of modern biotechnology in the mid-1970s the Bay Area and its biomedical institutions such as UCSF have played a central role in the discovery and commercialization of many innovations. The region has developed a unique entrepreneurial culture that continues to change and adapt to the changing innovation environment.

Efforts to replicate the Silicon Valley environment in local regions or in specialized economic zones have met with limited success. This course is not an attempt to project the Silicon Valley model for entrepreneurship on the world. Instead, it embraces the current trend – the globalization of entrepreneurship and the localization of entrepreneurship through the cultures and norms of the entrepreneurial and financial leaders.

The course is built around immersion in the models and activities of the Bay Area, with examples of successful localization of those models and activities to regional situation. Through this intense immersion, attendees will receive the training, skills and perspective to make them leaders in their own developing regions.

Course Objectives

This course provides an in-depth examination of what it takes to establish successful biotechnology companies in Asia, Latin America, or other emerging Biotech economies and markets. Extensive hands-on experiences and case study discussions will emphasize the challenging issues that are critical and unique to this new market opportunity. At the end of the session attendees should be ready to take on leadership roles in their communities, start businesses, or take a more active role in investing in life sciences ventures.

We will address the following topics during the course:

• Entrepreneurship
• Opportunity recognition
• Business planning
• Intellectual property development and strategy
• Venture formation and growth
• Team development
• Partnering strategies

Life Sciences

• A broad overview of the structure of the segments of the life sciences industry that will help orient the entrepreneur or investor. Segments to be covered include:
  • Medical Devices
  • Diagnostics
  • Instrumentation
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Nutraceuticals and traditionals
  • Services
• Specific issues within topical vertical industry segments of interest in today’s market
• Information on hot topics in the life sciences

Venture Finance

• The roles of government, business angels, venture capital and the public markets in fostering entrepreneurial growth
• Investment screens and criteria in life science verticals
• Becoming a venture capitalist financing; and
• The role of incubation and other actors in the entrepreneurial ecosystem

Attendees will also have the opportunity to develop a project during the week long course. That project will be a plan to exploit an opportunity in their region. The opportunities will range from developing new business concepts to creating a venture fund and support mechanisms.

Who should attend?

The course is designed primarily for individuals who are aiming to establish, invest in or directly support successful biotechnology companies in emerging markets.

• Scientists and engineers with technology to commercialize
• Entrepreneurs who wish to get an in-depth understanding of the global Biotechnology sector
• Investors interested in opportunities in developing life science economies
• Leaders from agencies and governments who will play a role in supporting entrepreneurship, technology, and the life sciences.

Agenda Overview

Sunday – Welcome Dinner

Monday – Industry Overview

This day contains an intensive overview of the global biotech market led by experts in the field from Burrill and Co. Course participants will come away with in-depth knowledge of the life science industry that they can use in assessing opportunities around technology and markets. The course will also provide a look at various forms of entrepreneurial activity in the life sciences, blending the information provided in the morning with ideas on how the practice of bio-entrepreneurship occurs. Opportunity recognition and the start up phase will be discussed.

Tuesday – Understanding Opportunities

Entrepreneurial endeavors require markets and solutions to come together. By their nature, opportunities are unique and require new ways of thinking and adaptation during their development. This day will explore the different ways that opportunities manifest themselves into startups with an emphasis on issues that underlie entrepreneurship in the global markets - understanding how global products can be made to serve local markets, and how assets can be deployed from the region to the global markets. Various vertical markets of interest will be explored – from ag/bio to devices to services.

Wednesday – Building Systems

Life science markets lie in a complex area of regulations and public policies that often change from country to country. We will look in detail at public policy, regulation, intellectual property and government incentives and explore how the entrepreneur can build the systems necessary to successfully navigate these issues.

Thursday – Capital sources

Virtually all entrepreneurial companies will require capital to achieve their goals. We will have investors describe how they make decisions to fund early stage opportunities and entrepreneurs describe their strategies for working with the investment community to achieve success. We will cover aspects of term sheets and investment documents that link entrepreneurs and investors together in the task of producing return on investment.

Friday – Success Factors

Our final day will focus on the factors that are critical to the success of the company. We will hear from companies and investors that have successfully gone public or have been sold. The session will wrap up with participants presenting their projects and getting critical feedback from an experienced group of panelists.

Location and Dates

The Global Bio-entrepreneurship Seminar is being held at the beautiful new Mission Bay campus of the University of California, San Francisco. The campus is in the heart of San Francisco and the biotechnology industry. For more information please visit http://pub.ucsf.edu//missionbay/.

Photos: The UCSF Mission Bay campus comes to life on a warm fall day. Photo by Majed.

Lodging

Lodging is the responsibility of the attendee. Our recommended hotel is The Stanford Court, a Renaissance Hotel located at 905 California St. Nob Hill, San Francisco, CA 94108 USA.

The Course will commence with a dinner on Sunday evening, October 17, 2010. Each day will be from 8:00am-5:00pm Monday through Friday October 22. Participants should be able to make flights from San Francisco International Airport on the evening on the 22nd.

Overview of QB3 and UCSF

QB3

The California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) is a cooperative effort among three campuses of the University of California  - University of California San Francisco, University of California Berkeley and University of California San Francisco.

QB3 harnesses the quantitative sciences to integrate our understanding of biological systems at all levels of complexity - from atoms and protein molecules to cells, tissues, organs and the entire organism. This long-sought integration allows scientists to attack problems that have been simply unapproachable before, setting the stage for fundamental new discoveries, new products and new technologies for the benefit of human health.

The Institute builds on strengths in the engineering and physical sciences at UC Berkeley, engineering and mathematical sciences at UC Santa Cruz, and the medical sciences at UC San Francisco, as well as strong biology programs at the three campuses.

For more details on QB3, go to QB3's website

UCSF

The University of California, San Francisco is a leading university that advances health worldwide by conducting advanced biomedical research, educating graduate students in the life sciences and health professions, and providing complex patient care. It is well known for its scientific discoveries and the companies that its technologies, faculty and students have spawned.

For more details on UCSF, go to UCSF's website

Tuition and Registration

The course is designed for up to 40 attendees. If you would like to attend the course, please register here before space runs out.

Tuition for the course is $5,750. If you are part of an early stage venture, or part of an academic institution, please inquire about receiving a discount on the tuition.