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Attendees gather ahead of Brock Reeves' presentation at Cell Therapy Bioprocessing & Commercialization 2015 |
By Ryan Geswell
Brock Reeve, executive director of the Harvard Stem Cell
Institute joined the Cell Therapy Bioprocessing & Commercialization today
to discuss the commercialization of cell therapies and, more specifically, ways
to fund early stage science.
He told a packed session that, because of uncertainty in
financial markets, venture capitalists and other financially motivated
investors have moved away from cell therapy, leaving a gap in funding. This gap
is being filled by venture philanthropy organizations.
The goal of these venture philanthropy organizations is to
move things from “the academic world and into the commercial market”, he said.
He cited the 2014 move by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to
sell rights to a drug its funding helped develop for $3.3bn, which Reeve said firmly
placed venture philanthropy organizations as investment vehicles into the
spotlight.
Since then others have come to light, he said. He discussed
how the SMA Foundation was created to accelerate the development of a treatment
for SMA, the number one genetic killer of infants and toddlers. The foundation
has spent more than US$110m on SMA drug development and serves as a hub for SMA
research, investing in a cross-section of activity.
Other investment vehicles have also presented themselves,
Reeve said. One has been the emergence of debt as a financing mechanism for
medical R&D. Traditionally, medical research “has lagged behind other
sectors” in the creation and application of novel financing methods to address
market failures, he added.
These unique methods of financing for the sector have
presented tremendous opportunity for advancements in research, drug
development, and treatment, Reeve concluded. And because of these funding
opportunities, many organizations have already hinted at potential cures.
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