UCSF's "Idea to IPO and Beyond" course — taught by experts in intellectual property, biotech financing and other skills needed to take a biotech company public — starts up again March 24, the third year for the popular course.

Created to offer graduate students, post-docs — and interested faculty — top-level expertise in the business side of the biotech industry, the course has now drawn the attention of many scientists who already work in the biotech industry. This year for the first time, the class is officially open to selected "students" from outside UCSF, including the biotech industry.

"Grad students, post-docs, and faculty don't really learn the business side of biotech at the university, and the same applies to most scientists who go to work for a biotech company," says Charles Craik, UCSF professor of pharmaceutical chemistry and one of the course leaders. "A graduate student or post-doc going to work for Chiron or Genentech, won't get a course there on intellectual property or how to write a good patent. This class shows them the business side — and they are learning from people of incredible caliber."

The course content is largely the product of a team organized by prominent San Francisco biotech merchant banker Steve Burrill. In the early weeks of the course, he presents what students have called the equivalent of a biotech State of the Union address.

The course includes discussions with professionals in biotech financing, and ends with students developing and presenting a business plan to a group of top biotech investors, including representatives of MPM Management, Versant, Alloy Ventures and Sanderling Ventures. Craik said the buying power of the investors was calculated one year at over $3.2 billion.

Even though scientists fill the leadership ranks in many biotech companies, Idea to IPO is unique nationally. It is the only such course offered by a biomedical university. The focus on developing a business plan and pitching it to a panel of venture capitalists offers a rare, high-powered opportunity, Craik says. And the leadership of Burrill "takes the course to headline level." This year, 12 scientists at UC Berkeley, unable to find any course like this, have asked to participate via videoconferencing.

Among recent successes: former UCSF graduate student Baruch Harris took the course its first year and quickly moved into the business side of science, first as director of the UCSF Entrepreneurs Discussion Group, then with an internship at Burrill & Company and now working full-time for the life-science division of McKinsey and Co., a highly regarded international management consulting firm. Post-doc Jeremy Skillington, who took the course last year, credits Idea to IPO with his entrée to Genentech, where he now is employed screening new business opportunities for the company.

This year's new "student" scientists from outside UCSF are selected for the course based on how well course leaders think they will complement and communicate with UCSF researchers in a team setting. About half of this year's class of 40 come from outside UCSF, including scientists in the biotech industry and students and faculty from other universities. Industry participants pay $2,000 for the course.

"We hope the new participants will expose UCSF researchers to industry perspectives, and maybe their interactions will translate into research or other collaborations between the companies and UCSF," said Reg Kelly, UCSF executive vice chancellor.

The Ideas to IPO and Beyond course is a project of UCSF's Center for BioEntrepreneurship, which directs programs to aid entrepreneurial scientists at UCSF. Katherine Moortgat, PhD, is the Center's director.

Source: Wallace Ravven

Last updated January 28, 2005