“The Power Of Convergence”

Murray Wigmore

Executive Director

YORK biotech Mission

The mission of York biotech is to act as a catalyst

to harness the wealth of intellectual and technical

resources to promote economic success and growth

of the biotechnology industry as a key strategy for

economic development in our region

Mission

Timmins

Kingston

Greater Sudbury

London

Hamilton

Barrie

Ottawa

Windsor

Brockville

Chatham-Kent

North Bay

Sarnia

Elliot Lake

Peterborough

Belleville

St. Catharines - Niagara

Guelph

Sault Ste. Marie

Toronto

KingstonGuelph-WaterlooGolden HorseshoePeterboroughWindsorNorthern OntarioToronto ConsortiumYork Regional ConsortiumMississaugaOttawa and Eastern RegionNo Data

CMA - CA boundary

BCIP Regions, CMA-CA and CDs

Data source: Ontario Biotechnology Secretariat, Life Science and Technologies Branch Ministry of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation, Government of Ontario, Sept. 2003 SIEID - EASD, Statitsics Canada, 09/03

Thunder Bay#

York Biotech • 37 affiliates that span four key

sectors: companies (SMEs and MNEs); Academia and hospitals; Governments (local, provincial, federal); And associations

• “YRBC will focus on creating a strategy that will drive initiatives which will provide value to all affiliates”

Vision I

MEDEC AOMM

ISCMHTX

York Biotech

Seneca

SunnybrookYRDSB

YTABarrie

Venn Growth

RBC

Sinofi-Pasteur

IBM

MDS

York U

MarkhamYork Region

NRCMEDT

Education and Research

Business support

Networking

Financial support

Global markets

Infrastructure

Government funding

OtherSME

MNE

The Importance of Clusters• A cluster is a group of interrelated companies,

organizations, associations, academic institutions, suppliers, service provides, etc. of a particular field located in the same geographical area

• Clusters promote regional economic and knowledge growth

• Benefits of clusters:– Accelerate the pace of innovation– Attract investment – Stimulate job creation– Generate wealth

Everyone Is Claiming “Convergent Technology”

• Bio-informatics, proteomics in bio/pharma drug discovery

• Photonics and mass spec in Proteomics• Pharmaceutical coated stents• Robotic surgery and communications• Telemedicine, EPR and PACS• Supercomputing and 3D realtime

visualization• Nanotechnology in biosensors and

drug/gene therapy delivery

Convergent Medical Technology

– Synergistic “intermingling” of 2 or more distinct technologies creating a new, hybrid device, process or product applied in health prevention, screening, diagnosis, therapy, monitoring or functional enhancement.

– At its simplest, the synergy results in improvement in the existing mode of action of an incumbent technology or one essentially unaltered product used in conjunction with another.

– At its most sophisticated, the synergy produces a new MOA distinct from each component technology with, in some cases, a “disruptive” level of performance, representing an entirely new class of applications.

This implies several classes of CMT• CT Devices/SystemsCT Devices/Systems: a CMT which directly applies

the combined technologies (e.g. Light-activated pharmaceuticals; in-vivo nanotech sensors or robotic surgery)

• CT ManufacturingCT Manufacturing: a new material / device /biologic/pharmaceutical created by a convergent manufacturing process

• CT TargetingCT Targeting: Use of one technology to target the use of another…but by themselves neither the targeting nor drug would be effective (e.g. patient-specific chemotherapy sensitivity or drug resistance assessment)

Companies/researchers Smell a

“Funding Frenzy”

• Potential for “convergence” to attract a portion of the ballooning biotech, Nanotech or new funding.

• Perceived as the next “big thing.”

– Biotech Internet (dot coms).

– Convergent technology.

Technology Life Cycles

Big Pharma,Passive Devices

Biotech, ProtemicsActive DevicesBioinformaticsAdvanced Materials

Convergent Technology

Faster InnovationFaster Diffusion

1900 1970 2000

Convergence Combination Examples

• Telerobotic surgery.– Robotic surgery + Telecomms.

• Surgical simulation.– Natural extensions of existing imaging

procedures.

• Coated stents.– Stents and Paclitaxel both work

independently and are just used together.

Tomorrow’s CT Leaders Are...

• Creating interdisciplinary teams• Identifying alliance suitable partners• Able to articulate the importance of

convergence to their technology strategy• Clear on the proportion of risk capital to

devote to convergent technology