GCMI CEO Tiffany Wilson shares her insights with Georgia Tech Research Horizons: “The more researchers plan for obstacles, the more good science will make it to patients.”
“Is Getting New Treatments to Patients Harder Than Landing on Mars?” Georgia Tech Research Horizons Senior Science Writer, Ben Brumfield, recently enlisted GCMI CEO, Tiffany Wilson, to help answer the question.
According to the article, only 15% of new therapies make it to patients, and getting a new treatment to market can require $1 billion in pharmaceutical company investment, “more than the entire budget for the latest NASA Mars mission.”
Researchers and innovators with ideas for new medical products face a long list of obstacles when bringing their therapy to market. Notably, the business side seems to be the biggest challenge and can bring unintended consequences down the road. It can be a defeating process, but it doesn’t have to be.
“Getting seed money is pretty easy. That comes from very early investors, who also get an equity stake. The follow-on rounds of funding are really hard. Initially, those usually come from your own personal savings or home equity, friends, family, and angel investors.
“Then early-stage venture capital funds can take researchers through clinical trials. Traditional venture capital these days pays for commercialization.”
Researchers have a better chance of bringing their solutions to market if they anticipate and plan for obstacles like intellectual property conflicts and shifting reimbursement policies early-on.
Read the article in its entirety here.
Contact GCMI today if you are interested in learning how we help accelerate the design and development, preclinical testing and bioskills training, and commercialization of new medical products to improve patient care and save lives.