Bio.Diaspora - Preventing the Next Pandemic (with MaRS Innovation)
Part I of this blog post introduced the Bio.Diaspora technology, which tracks the spread of infectious diseases using international flight data and is transitioning from a grant-funded model to an earned-revenue model. As a business with inherent positive social impact, it may qualify for impact investments as well. However, it is still early days; this post explains how MaRS Innovation is helping maximize the potential of this project.
In 2008, the federal government provided $15 M for the acceleration of scientific innovation commercialization developed within Ontario’s leading academic and health institutions through the formation of MaRS Innovation. This initiative was further fueled by its member institutions to create an interdependent intelligent network to translate research findings into market deliverables that would contribute to Canada’s economic outlook and the quality of life of Canadians and others around the world.
In June 2011, St Michael’s Hospital brought Bio.Diaspora to MaRS Innovation for market potential evaluation. Extensive due diligence determined that Bio.Diaspora’s academic pursuits were not only successful in anticipating patterns of infectious disease spread, but also in being able to operationalize new anticipatory avenues in global health initiatives. In order to maximize Bio.Diaspora’s potential to meet the customized needs of a diversified customer base requiring real-time information on the spread of infectious diseases, the academic approach followed to-date required rescaling.
How can this academic initiative be transformed into a commercial entity capable of providing the software application sales and support services required to meet the needs of its clients, and concurrently produce a positive social impact?
Research contracts secured from governments, health agencies and other groups (total ~ $1.5M to date) have aided the development and testing of Bio.Diaspora’s proprietary intellectual property. However, the deliverables for each contract restrict research and development directives and are often excessively too focused to establish scale. An infusion of initial capital is required to facilitate and support expanded infrastructure to create a stable financial entity. Bio.Diaspora needs to develop and test IT infrastructure scenarios to support the projected high future user volumes, including testing and optimizing a number of cloud computing scenarios and training technical trouble-shooting personnel. These activities fall outside traditional academic grant proposals but are essential to scaling up Bio.Diaspora--private investors are looking for robustness in these very areas to reduce perceived risk.
Business modeling with the intent for sustainability and profit to further future initiatives is critical to the success of bringing Bio.Diaspora’s initial and future product offerings to the market.
Initial market entry will take place in the health sector where Bio.Diaspora has inherent strengths (clinical/academic) and also where resources are deployed for standards of practice in pandemic response and resolution. Bio.Diaspora will work closely with the US Centers for Disease Control to design an optimal user interface customized to serve their specific needs for risk analysis and management. The goal is to translate Bio.Diaspora’s accumulated foundational knowledge into a real-time web-based software application for future independent use and integration into current CDC protocols.
In working with the initial client, Bio.Diaspora will gain a wealth of commercial experience in integrating and implementing target market software. Bio.Diaspora will, for example, learn how to work with a client on a continuing, rather than contract-specific, basis. Academically and economically, this will fuel Bio.Diaspora’s future research development by generating more hypotheses for investigation and supporting other health projects within the Canadian and international landscape.
Marketing has, to-date, been achieved via academic forums in a peer review setting such as invited lectures, conferences and journal publication (NEJM, CMAJ). On a larger scale, this project has landed on industry radar with the recent release of the movie “Contagion.” Attention now spans from healthcare groups and organizations, as anticipated, to social network forums.
We are creating a mechanism to commercially scale an academic offering with inherent social impact. The product is scientifically validated and market pull exists. Nevertheless, there are challenges in bridging the gap between academic research and creation of a financially sustainable entity. What is certain is that there should be incentives for entrepreneurs bringing products and services that provide both economic and social benefits. Bio.Diaspora has the potential to significantly impact the way infectious diseases are analyzed for risk management, optimizing global health and minimizing the economic burden to healthcare systems in a sustainable and ultimately profitable way.
