Will Build Entrepreneurship Case Study and Educational Resource Section for Entrepreneurship.org

A popular New York state entrepreneurial biotechnology management seminar series, sponsored by the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship, will soon be available via the Web. The series is based on the widely acclaimed book Commercializing Successful Biomedical Technologies, written by Severino Center executive-in-residence Shreefal Mehta and will serve as the foundation for the educational resource section on Entrepreneurship.org, a Web site accessible via the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Severino Center.

Located within the Lally School of Management & Technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Severino Center was awarded a 10-month grant by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the largest organization devoted to the advancement and education of entrepreneurship.

Under the terms of the grant, a Web site will be created to house past slides and streaming video seminars from the biotech series—35 in all since its inception in 2001. Additionally, the Severino Center and Mehta may collaborate with other schools to develop 20 initial case studies for inclusion on the Web site. The case studies will be produced in consultation with industry and academic partners.

“The Web site will serve as a compilation of “do’s and don’ts,” said Mehta. It will include useful tools such as business models and market analysis cases for life science companies. It will also incorporate case studies and talks featuring views and ideas from managers, financiers, visionary CEOs, and experienced entrepreneurs, allowing life science entrepreneurs and managers to formulate their own “best practices” from the Web site content. These case studies will help educators in business, engineering, and science schools build content for entrepreneurship courses, complementing the textbook Commercializing Successful Biomedical Technologies.

The biotechnology series highlights entrepreneurial biotech ventures in New York’s Tech Valley region and attracts more than 500 academic and biotechnology professionals annually. Specifically, it features expert speakers in the lifecycle of biotechnology entrepreneurship, emerging business models, and financial, legal and management issues. It also seeks to promote an open dialogue on the unique benefits the biotech industry brings to Tech Valley and the upstate region.

“The Severino Center is honored to receive this grant. It simply confirms the increased importance of biotechnology to our economy and, subsequently, in our educational systems. We are thrilled that our eight years of seminars can be broadly utilized,” said Jean Howard, associate director of the Severino Center and co-principal investigator for the project.

The 2008-2009 year concluded with Susan Dubay, senior manager, clinical, medical and scientific affairs, at Welch Allyn. Previous speakers also included Rensselaer Sr. Constellation Professor of Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering Robert Linhardt, who spoke on the “Business Pressures on Life-Saving Drugs: A New Model for Commercializing Synthetic Heparin.” Linhardt was followed by Sr. VP and General Manager of Industrial Operation and Product Supply, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., Daniel P. VanPlew, who spoke on “Charting a Career along the Yellow Brick Road of Biotech.”

The series is co-sponsored by the Severino Center at Rensselaer and Cornell University’s Center for Life Science Enterprise, and supported by the University of Buffalo, Rochester Medical Center, MedTech, the Syracuse Technology Garden, BioConnex and the New York Biotechnology Association.