The BIEM Verification Study: Experienced Venture Capitalists Assess a Biopharmaceuticals Innovation Expertise Model

Moira A. Gunn
University of San Francisco, School of Management, Director, Business of Biotechnology Program; Producer and Host, BioTech Nation
Nola Masterson
Managing Director, Science Futures Management Company, LLC Adjunct Professor, Business of Biotechnology Program, University of San Francisco
Paul Lorton, Jr.
Professor, Management Information Systems School of Management University of San Francisco
Jacques Baronet
Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management University of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada

DOI:https://doi.org/10.5912/jcb749

Abstract:

Developing biopharmaceutical therapies is a scientifically complex endeavor, requiring from ten to fifteen years of effort with successive rounds of increasingly greater investment capital in a risk-intensive landscape. With failure rates at 88%, and an all-attempts-averaged investment of over $2B per approved drug, discussions of what leads to success and/or failure are pervasive. In this milieu, the BIEM (Bioenterprise Innovation Expertise Model) model was developed so that the status of a bioenterprise could quickly be assessed. Assessing the BIEM model, 20 biopharmaceuticals venture capitalists with 30 years average biotechnology industry experience, all having board experience, most having served as board chairs, and 80% having been CEO’s and/or presidents, rated the innovation expertise disciplines of BIEM 2.0 as to their importance in the scientific discovery through market-ready product innovation phase of biopharmaceutical development. Despite a small sample size, statistically significant insights were produced, verifying the BIEM model. The most important innovation expertise disciplines were intellectual property, science, regulatory expertise, and venture capital, in that order. Further, the strongest correlations linked regulatory expertise and science, and equally so, intellectual property and venture capital. Additional insights with respect to the profiles of the biopharmaceutical venture capitalists themselves is also presented.

Keywords:BIEM model ,Bioenterprise Innovation Expertise Model ,entrepreneurial model testing ,business model testing ,biopharmaceutical failure ,biopharmaceutical success ,University of San Francisco ,University of Sherbrooke ,en ,