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STEERING COMMITTEES ARE VALUABLE FOR OUTSIDE RELATIONSHIPS. Say you form a R&D partnership with a big company who funds your research in return for an Option. A Steering Committee is critical to establish criteria for success, and to determine a decision tree for all possible data outcomes. You need to protect yourself from a bad result leading to a surprise termination of the relationship, an event that can be at worst disasterous, and at best very hard to manage. You need to be jointly managing these expectations and be on the same page at every step. View in LinkedIn

BIG PHARMA CONSORTIUMS emerging everywhere. A NewThink moment. http://lnkd.in/cFXMcN View in LinkedIn

GROWING ORGANS IN A TEST TUBE was a dream of mine 20 years ago (Nephros) but VCs did not believe it could be possible (and perhaps back then it was not). But so much more is known today that the reality is much more credible, and POC has been achieved for some systems. No longer waiting lists for donors, or a sordid black market from developing countries: this is a dream coming true. http://www.newscientist.com/mobile/article/dn23133-need-an-organ-just-print-some-stem-cells-in-3d.html View in LinkedIn

CROWDSOURCING, OPEN INNOVATION AND BIG PHARMA? Oxymorons show radical shifts in thinking in traditionally stuffy cultures. http://lnkd.in/e4P48y View in LinkedIn

MARKETING IN A SOCIAL WORLD is full of new thinking and new opportunities. Throw the old textbook out of the window and relearn the new world. http://lnkd.in/dfnqfA View in LinkedIn

A 500,000 COMPOUND 'EUROPEAN 'LEAD FACTORY' CONSORTIUM of large Pharma companies and academics in crowd sourcing initiative to find utility in discarded drug libraries. The third and biggest move in this direction. These all represent big shifts of strategy by formerly secretive Pharma companies and an unusual collaboration between the giants. http://lnkd.in/yqNFMg View in LinkedIn

LATE BUT IMPORTANT FDA GUIDELINES ON BIOSIMILARS just as the lobbying efforts are heating up against generic biologics. http://lnkd.in/t5rFFJ View in LinkedIn

INNOVATIVE PARTNERSHIP that can be replicated in other hospitals matching startups with health providers. http://lnkd.in/jw4zzn View in LinkedIn

30,000 DRUGS IN CLINICAL TRIALS HAVE BEEN ABANDONED IN 30 YEARS, and NIH's Francis Collins suggested repurposing them through crowd-sourcing. The UK's MRC kicked on 16 M USD initiative for repurposing 22 drugs, and the US NCATS followed suit with a group of 58 abandoned drugs. These are innovative moves. Traditionally, accessing these molecules has been difficult. http://lnkd.in/wriVbj View in LinkedIn

FINDING USES FOR BIG PHARMA'S ABANDONED DRUG CANDIDATES has become a hot area, and here we have Francis Collins pushing the initiative. Many of these candidates have had toxicological testing in Man, and this significantly de-risks a molecule. Sifting from old gold mines. http://lnkd.in/wriVbj View in LinkedIn