ODT senior business reporter Simon Hartley talks to University of Otago anatomy department researcher and lecturer Dr Elspeth Gold, who attended a recent Creating Value from Innovation workshop in Dunedin, run by the Kiwi Innovation Network.
From the laboratory to stock-exchange listing: the commercialisation of university research holds the potential for rich rewards but is a fraught process taking years of painstaking research, capital-raising and regulatory hurdles.
For University of Otago researcher and lecturer in the department of anatomy, Dr Elspeth Gold, commercialisation is a potential option in her search of more than nine years for a new screening marker to more accurately diagnose prostate cancer.
The focus of Kiwinet's two workshops was for the 16 researchers to create plans for how, when and where to work with the finance market, and to develop alternative applications for their ideas, and also risk-management strategies.
Examples of the risks and rewards of innovation-to-commercialisation can be traced through Dunedin's high-profile biotechnology sector, which has struggled to gain financial traction during the past decade.
The $2.6 million receivership in 2010 of Botry-Zen, which made products to fight plant diseases, brought to an end more than $8 million of losses over six years.
More recently, cash-starved oral pro-biotic manufacturer Blis Technologies warned shareholders last month of the likelihood its next two annual losses would amount to $2.5 million, on top of seven earlier losses totaling $6.35 million.
However, bladder cancer diagnostic firm Pacific Edge has provided a beacon.
It recapitalised by $20 million a year ago and is making inroads into United States markets especially, but that took a decade and $15.7 million spent on research and development.
As with Pacific Edge's bladder cancer diagnostic tool, Dr Gold is looking for a more reliable diagnostic prostate cancer marker, one that is specific to identifying metastatic (having the potential to spread) prostate cancer.
Long before any consideration of commercialisation can begin, research must be taken to a provable level which could encourage outside investment for further, more expensive studies.
At the extreme end of medical sector research lie high-reward, high-risk projects. Sometimes $500 million to more than $1 billion must be spent by pharmaceutical companies before the full public release, or not, of a new drug.
Medical sector investment, at any level, is not for the faint-hearted.
Dr Gold has researched new prostate markers for seven years at Melbourne's Monash University, where some research was patented, before coming to Otago two and a-half years ago, where she now has an eight-person laboratory.
The Dunedin lab focuses on a family of proteins called activins and their potential as a diagnostic marker for metastatic prostate cancer.
She said the blood test PSA (prostate specific antigen) was the main serum marker used as an indicator of prostate health, but some research suggested other non-cancer prostate health issues could prompt a higher-than-usual PSA count, in turn either missing a cancer or prompting unnecessary treatments when something else was to blame.
"There is significant false positive and false negatives with PSA; for example, a significant number of men with normal PSA levels have evidence of prostate cancer, and many men with elevated PSA show no evidence of prostate cancer upon biopsy," Dr Gold said.
The limitations of PSA screening meant its use was not advocated in many countries, including New Zealand, and some health professionals "would actively discourage its use", she said.
She attended the commercialisation workshop at the university's Centre for Innovation, looking for a "sound bite" of why businesses would want to invest.
"There is some potential there for aspects of our research to [be] commercialised in the future."
However, for her there is a fine balance to be struck in whether commercially funded research is better for the scientific community, and ultimately patients, or to continue the slower, more historical route of publicly funded research.
She is aware of the success and failures of Dunedin's biotech community, and sees a "high degree" of risk in commercialisation because most medical start-ups fail.
She conceded a cash injection from a company would accelerate research, and ultimately benefit patients sooner than university-led research, but failure would set back that research for years.
"It could then take years to resume [publicly funded] research and get back to the same point."
She said the ultimate goal of finding a prostate screening tool was to detect biologically significant disease early enough to prompt the correct, early treatment.
"We need a diagnostic marker that is specific to metastatic prostate cancer. This is truly the holy grail of prostate disease markers."
Dr Gold is hopeful either a simple urine or blood test could one day be used to find a new marker for prostate cancer.
It is no small irony that when Dr Gold was asked to expand on aspects of research to date, the early stages of patenting at Monash University forbade her from publicly talking about research that could one day be commercialised.
"Companies want to see their IP [intellectual property rights] protected, while in the scientific community we want to talk publicly and test hypotheses."
She hopes her research eventually leads to a new and highly reliable test, which could even offer more accurate results than prostate biopsies (multiple needle samples) which, while being the best of the screening tests, also had a "hit and miss" element and their own "false positive and false negative" outcomes, she said.
Attending the Creating Value from Innovation workshops were, in Dunedin, eight PhD students, including two candidates, two postdoctorates, one research fellow and researcher/lecturer Dr Gold, and in Hamilton three masters and PhD students and five researchers.
David Christensen, senior commercialisation manager at Otago Innovation Ltd, said by gaining a practical understanding of the commercialisation process and how it relates to their work, researchers found it was easier to identify opportunities for commercialisation.
"A key theme of the workshop is that commercialisation needs to be an inherent part of the research project," he said in a statement.
The workshops covered evaluation of commercial potential of a project, how to go commercial, marketing and communication, due diligence, risk management and IP strategies.
General manager commercial at WaikatoLink, Nigel Slaughter said by improving researchers' commercial awareness and skills, the Kiwinet group was helping ensure more research and technology innovations reached the marketplace.
"By helping researchers to think like a business, even if for just one day, we can radically increase the chances of their technology being used," he said in a statement.
The Hamilton workshop was hosted by Wintec, the region's technical institution, and also attended by Wintec's commercial partner Prima Group Ltd, the latter having created the Prima Prize for Innovation with a $10,000 award for the most valuable idea of the year, to be judged by a panel.
• Kiwinet founders include Plant and Food Research, Otago Innovation, Lincoln University, AUT Enterprises, AgResearch, University of Canterbury, Industrial Research Ltd, Viclink and WaikatoLink, supported by the Ministry of Science and Innovation. www.kiwinet.org.nz
