Karolinska to set out 10-year plan for commercialising R&D, after raising €63M

This year has seen the Karolinska Institute make several moves to strengthen its innovation and commercialisation system, appointing new heads from industry to run its development arm and Innovation Office, and raising €63 million on the Swedish Stock Exchange to help fund spin-off companies.

In January Torbjörn Bjerke, former CEO of the Swedish pharmaceutical company Orexa AB, was appointed CEO of Karolinska Development AB, which manages the Instituet’s portfolio of spin-off companies. Karolinska Development subsequently followed the trail blazed by Imperial Innovations plc, the technology commercialisation arm of Imperial College London, and went public in April, bringing in €63 million.

Just before that, in March Bo-Ragnar Tolf was named as the first Director of the Innovation Office, set up in November 2010.

The Karolinska is now working on a long-range strategy for innovation, research, and education, which is due to be published at the beginning of next year. “Innovation will be a core of Karolinska,” Tolf told Science|Business.

Making researchers more innovative

The aim of the Innovation Office is to make the medical university’s students and faculty more innovative, whilst attracting outside collaborators to stimulate commercialisation. It is one of eight such innovation units set up in Swedish research institutes as part of the government’s 2008, “A Boost to Research and Innovation” research bill.

“The government wants to see more research coming out of academia to the public,” Tolf said. The Karolinska will get $1.5 million per year for the next three years out of the $10 million annual budget the government has allotted for the eight innovation units. “A new bill in 2012 for research and innovation hopefully will add more financial muscle into the system,” said Tolf. “The whole life sciences sector is suffering from underfunding, especially in the early stages.”

Before joining the Innovation Office Tolf spent nine years as managing director of Acadia Pharmaceuticals, and also worked at AstraZeneca and Kabi Pharmacia Therapeutics. Most recently he was running his own consultancy and serving as a board member of three companies within Karolinska Development.

Inspire and guide

This is an impressive sweep of pharmaceutical industry experience, but according to Tolf, his task isn’t so much to fund research, ideas, and innovation, as to inspire and guide researchers and students and commercialise inventions. Collaborating with industry to leverage funding is a key part of this role, and the performance of the Innovation Office will be evaluated each year by the government.

“My task is to inspire researchers and students to think about innovation and the use of their research results, to guide anyone coming in here from inside or outside the Karolinska, give feedback on business plans, and facilitate collaboration between Karolinska and industry,” Tolf said.

“We are looking for major collaborations centered on platforms or thematic research,” he added, “So this is not the everyday collaboration.” Particular strengths of the Karolinska include stem cells and regenerative medicine, inflammation research, and translational medical research. It also has important research resources in its biobanks, twin registries, and biomarker data.

Shy scientists

In order to stimulate students and faculty, Tolf is meeting with all 22 research institutions within the Karolinska. In addition, seminars and competitions are being planned, and Tolf will bring in entrepreneurs from outside the school to describe their experiences. “We have started doing this and will accelerate these efforts,” he said.

There are several obstacles to be overcome if Swedish researchers are to compete with their US counterparts, he noted. Scientists in Sweden tend to be shyer and less savvy about business, Tolf said.

However, there one potent advantage: Sweden is one of the few countries where researchers can patent and own their own inventions. Still, they tend to hold on to these inventions and are wary of giving away rights to raise money for spin-off companies. Karolinska is introducing business classes in a bid to help people overcome these reservations.

One ambition is that in five years’ time all departments at Karolinska have innovation as a line item on their department plan. Tolf also hopes to see the number of investable ideas presented by academics increase substantially, and to see more companies created and funded.

Changing academic culture

Shifting the academic culture is a long-term process and the Karolinska’s ten-year strategy is intended to drive this change.

The innovation system at Karolinska Institutet consists of the Innovation Office; the Unit for Bioentrepreneurship, which is responsible for teaching and academic research into innovation and entrepreneurship; Karolinska Institutet Innovation AB, which provides professional advice and project management on market analysis, patenting, and business development seed funding; and Karolinska Development.

Raising €63 million in the public listing of Karolinska Development was a sign that investors recognise the strength of the innovation system, according to Karolinska Institutet President, Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson. This is, “Something that no other university has, namely a bridge from academia, via its innovation and holding companies, to an investment company,” she said.