Topic: Achieving Product Development Success for Life Science Startups

Speaker Bio: Dr. Fred Mermelstein, Founder of several start-ups, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Lecturer in Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, will lecture on the three critical elements that drive product development success, specifically: unmet medical need, reimbursment, and intellectual property. In this workshop, your company will evaluate its own technology and the Harvard Biotechnology Incubator [“HBI”] team will provide immediate feedback as part of the session. Drs. Fred Mermelstein and Carl Novina, Principal Investigator at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, co-edited a Biotechnology textbook entitled, “Biotechnology, From Idea to Market”, and serve as mentors to the Harvard Biotechnology Incubator (HBI). Fred & Carl are also cofounders of the Life Lab resident biotech startup company SanaRx, which was conceived through the efforts of the innovative HBI program.

About the Workshop Series: This series of workshops is for early-stage life science founders from the Harvard Innovation Labs ecosystem. The workshop will focus specifically on business development, commercialization strategy, and product development strategy for life sciences and healthcare markets. Topics will include prioritization of indications/applications, competitor landscape analyses, intellectual property strategy, regulatory & payer/reimbursement strategy, partnerships & alliances with industry, and venture financing & fundraising strategy. The workshop will bring together founders in an informal setting with leaders from life science startups, industry, and venture capital for group discussions on these different topics. The series will include ‘homework’ given to the founders, which will then be shared and discussed with the group as a means to gain feedback and insights into other founder’s learning experiences. The workshop series will also serve the purpose of promoting a strong sense of community among the founders, allowing them to help one another through the challenges experienced as early-stage life science founders.