BioBusiness course

Do you consider to make a career switch to industry? Do you want to gain a better understanding of BioBusiness, broaden your network or even think about starting your own company? This is possible! This two-week BioBusiness course for Master’s and PhD students shows you how. We will get you familair with the ideas and concepts behind the valorization of research ideas and technology. The course will give insights in the identification of research or research ideas that can becommercialized, performance of proof-of-concept validation, the road through patent protection of obtained results or technology, pre-seed financing of research, formation of a start-up company and the development of a product into the market. There will be seminars by a selection of top-notch speakers, ranging from researchers with starting spin-off companies, experts on grant writing, patenting, regulatory issues, as well as finance and venture capital, to captains of industry and CEOs of large and successful companies.

The goal of the course is to provide insight in the factors that dictate success in present-day development of therapeutics and diagnostics.

 

Course content
The subjects of the course includes:

General aspects of how several miracle drugs have been developed, form early laboratory research stage to development and clinical proof-of-principle, and the economic and regulatory issues involved;
– General aspects of how novel diagnostic tools for staging cancers and for determining drug sensitivity have been developed;
– Impact of careful indication selection and clinical study planning in drug development;
– Regulatory issues regarding drug development;
– Examples of a number of spin-off companies and their activities in drug development and diagnostics;
– Legal and patent issues in technology transfer and partnerships between universities and pharma, biotech and devices companies.

Form of tuition
There will be 24 contact hours, in the form of lectures, lecture repetitions and discussions by the course coordinators and a number of invited lecturers. These will include external experts on molecular diagnostics and regulatory affairs, presentations on spin-off companies and key people of Technology Transfer Offices, and on legal and patent issues. In addition, the course consists of independent learning on the basis of exploring literature and business reports on selected topics. All lectures will be preceded by formulation of expectations and followed by lecture repetition sessions. Next to classes and discussion sessions, there will be six assignments to elaborate in groups of 4-5 students. Reporting will take place by dedicated presentations or written reports. On the last day of the course, students will present a business plan for a start-up company.

Type of assessment
There is a requirement for 90% attendance. There is no general exam. The course will be concluded by group presentations on studies of scientific literature and business reports on development of certain drugs and diagnostics. These will be assigned by the course coordinators, and the literature and business studies will also be summarized in short written reports, to be delivered at certain moments during the course.

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Information

Registration deadline:

October 23 – November 3, 2023
3.0

Amsterdam UMC, location VUmc
OOA PhD (and Master Oncology) students
Free of charge
Prof. dr. Arjan Griffioen, Dr. Else Huijbers, Dr. Judy van Beijnum, Zuhir Elkarghali
For any questions or need for extra information, please contact a.griffioen@amsterdamumc.nl
September 8