Innovation Through Collaboration At DIA
By Rob Wright
The 48th Annual DIA meeting took place in Philadelphia June 24 – 28, 2012. Its theme this year, collaborate to innovate, sent a message to attendees of the life sciences industry who have been clamoring for new drugs and discoveries since the realization that the pending patent cliff is no longer pending. That message was — truly revolutionary ideas and inventions of significance don't result in a vacuum, but are derived from collaboration, bringing great minds and companies together, much like a symphony.
Innovation Inspiration
After a welcome by Philadelphia mayor, Michael Nutter, keynote attendees were inspired and entertained by the nine-piece string ensemble, the Divine Hand Ensemble. Led by Mano Divina, the ensemble demonstrated that for beautiful music to be achieved it is necessary to bring together different instruments, and work in harmony for the outcome to be greater than the sum of its parts.
Craig Lipset, head of clinical innovation worldwide R&D for Pfizer, served as this year's DIA program chair. Following the music, Lipset noted that the word innovation has vaulted to the top of the list of business buzzwords. He pointed out that publications have been increasingly using the word often combined with the term disruptive in headlines and tweets, to garner increased attention among industry pundits. According to Lipset, it is not the idea that results in innovation, but rather what you do with it which brings value. He then introduced Dean Kamen, founder and president of DEKA Research & Development Corp. who served as the plenary session keynote speaker.
Collaboration – The Necessary Ingredient To Change The World
Kamen, most famously known for having invented the Segway, is on a new mission to make the world a better place, which he believes can only be achieved through successful collaboration. As evidence, he walked the audience through how mankind could benefit from having portable water purification systems to reduce the spread of death and disease. The Slingshot is a washing-machine-size device that runs on cow dung and can produce 10 gallons/hour of purified water, a game-changing invention when you consider that 1/6 of the world's population does not have safe drinking water, and 50% of all human illness is caused by waterborne pathogens. Kamen realized that his invention could only be game changing if he could get it to the places in the world where it could do the most good. He needed a partner, a collaborator, one with not only tremendous size and scale, but one with market access to the far reaches of the globe, and a brand that exudes trust and quality. And thus, the partnership between his company and Coca-Cola was born.
Coke is not a company you might commonly think of as playing in the life sciences space. However, Kamen pointed out that if their partnership is successful, not only will the world be a better place, but Coke could quickly become one of the largest life science companies in the world simply by deploying the Slingshot water purification system alongside the various bottled and canned drinks it distributes around the world daily. This message of collaboration and being willing to partner with companies outside of traditional channels was not lost on the life sciences industry. Perhaps the most innovative collaboration I uncovered thus far at DIA involves the recent announcement of ExcoInTouch, a global provider of secure, regulatory compliant mobile communication solutions, partnering with Vodafone, the world's largest cellular telephone company.
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