Transcript The Triple Helix How This Innovation Model has Supported

The Triple Helix
How This Innovation Model has
Supported the Success of MDS Sciex
Bill Davidson
May 10, 2006
MDS Sciex
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World’s largest manufacturer of mass spectrometers in the life
sciences market
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>$550M in end-user revenues
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550 employees in three sites, 230 staff in R&D
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$50M R&D budget
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Joint Venture with Applied Biosystems
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Joint Venture with PerkinElmer
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MS/MS, Linear Trap, QqTOF, TOF/TOF
ICP/MS and prO-TOF
Just launched first non-MS product – the CellKey cell analysis
system
What is the Triple Helix?
Triple Helix Piano Trio
What is the Triple Helix?
The Triple Helix Rock Band
What is the Triple Helix?
Industry
University
Government
Diagram of How it Works
Academia
New Product Concepts
Industry
Funding &
Strategic Needs
Government
Employment,
Taxes, Benefits to
Citizens
Benefits to Industry
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Expand long term and risky research activities to
experts in the field
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Obtain proprietary technology through licensing
agreements
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Leverage funding through matching grant
projects
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Collaborating research labs are source of new
recruits
Benefits to Academia
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Excellent source of funding with industry and
government sharing the load
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Funding allows for critical mass of personnel and in
general more efficient research
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Training of highly qualified personnel in industrial related
research good for job placements
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Helps remove stigma of “ivied walls”
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Research generally based on strategic needs and has
long range benefit to the community
Benefits to Government
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New industries and new products can lead to
higher employment
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Financial benefit from taxes and duties
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Helps support strategic R&D initiatives
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Many products have impact on Canadians in
providing a better live style
Success Stories
Development of TAGA 6000
Taga 6000 (1980)
An Mobile Taga 6000 for
Environmental Monitoring
Parties Involved
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Academia
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Government
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University of Toronto Aerospace Institute, Barry
French who had had expertise in ion optics in free jet
expansion
National Research Council, Peter Dawson who had
world leading expertise in quadrupole design
Department of Industry (PILP program)
Industry
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Sciex Inc.
Outcome
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The TAGA 6000 was the first commercial triple quadrupole mass
spectrometer
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Introduced in 1980, it was the foundation for Sciex’s commercial
success
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Sciex now is world leader in production of triple quadrupole
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Major source of licensing revenue for the NRC and U of T
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Led to thousand of Canadian jobs
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Off-spring products now used in development of drugs, neonatal
and other clinical screening
Development of ELAN 250
Parties Involved
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University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies
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MDS Sciex
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Dr. Don Douglas who was the first to accomplish this
interface.
National Research Council
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Dr. Barry French who had expertise in interfacing
atmospheric pressure ion sources with MS
Dr. Jim McLaren who was a leader in elemental analysis
Department of Industry
Outcome
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The Elan 250 was the first commercial ICP/MS
used for trace element detection
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It proved to be the catalyst in the formation of a
joint venture between Sciex and Perkin Elmer
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Market now include: clinical, environmental,
semi-conductor, homeland security, medical
research
More Outcomes
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NRC became the first user of technique and
used it to develop calibration standards
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NRC received royalties as repayment of
government grant
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Several hundred jobs created over the years
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Diversified Sciex’s product line and kept
company alive in the mid-80s
Development of ELAN 6000
and API 300
Parties Involved
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University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace
Studies
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Dr. Barry French
Several Sciex scientists seconded to UTIAS
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MDS Sciex
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Perkin Elmer
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Ontario Technology Fund
Outcomes
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API 300 became the platform triple quadrupole
system for MDS Sciex and with high margins led
to added profitability
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Elan 6000 also became the platform ICP/MS,
and became the market leader in elemental
analysis
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$17M government investment has lead to over
$3B in revenues
More Outcomes
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This project became the “model” project for
believers in the triple helix model of innovation
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It gave MDS Sciex the ability to compete globally
and led to our success in the industry
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UTIAS students and post-docs went on to
excellent positions in industry and academia
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OTF didn’t fair well and was stopped when
Conservatives took power
Development of QStar and
o-MALDI
Centaur
Parties Involved
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University of Manitoba
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Dr. Ken Standing and Werner Ens, experts in time-of-flight
(TOF) technology
MDS Sciex
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Dr. Bruce Thomson and others, experts in quadrupole
technology
Applied Biosystems
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Institute for Marine Biosciences
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Dr. Bob Boyd and others, experts in the use of MS in
bioanalytical work
NSERC
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Outcomes
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The QStar was the first TOF instrument
developed by MDS Sciex
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It is now a key product in biomarker discover
and protein identification
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o-MALDI proved to be a powerful tool in
proteomics and now is used to tissue imaging,
high throughput assays
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U of Manitoba and Sciex were awarded an
NSERC Synergy Award for this project
More Outcomes
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Royalties and other licensing fees were a major
source of revenue for U Manitoba (and still are)
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U Manitoba became key player in proteomics
arena
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Key member of Sciex’s present research group
came from U Manitoba and IMB
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This is also viewed as a model of how
academia, industry and government projects can
be beneficial to all
When Projects are Successful
Academia
Industry
Government
Not So Successful
DNA Sequencer
The Applied Biosystems Prism 3700
Parties Involved
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University of Alberta
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Dr. Norm Dovichi, expert in capillary electrophoresis
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Genetic Disease Network
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Bacterial Disease Network
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MDS Sciex
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NSERC
Outcomes
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ILO office late in patenting certain aspects of the
technology
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MDS Sciex unable to commercialize product
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Applied Biosystems licenses technology from Sciex and
creates the first high throughput, capillary based DNA
sequencer
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This technology led to the sequencing of the Human
Genome
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Job creation in Canada less than 5 sales persons.
What went wrong
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University under-estimated value of the
technology
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MDS Sciex did not have the resource base to
commercialize a non-MS product
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Applied Biosystems had other key patents in
place that restricted Sciex
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Dovichi became under-funded, and went to the
US
MS Protein Sequencer
The Toby Project
Parties Involved
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Biomedical Research Centre (University of
British Columbia)
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Dr. Ruedi Abersold, a leader in protein
characterization
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MDS Sciex
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Industry Canada
Outcome
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Three prototypes were built but no commercial
product was ever made
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Industry Canada did not receive any of its
investment back
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Technology worked, but overtaken by other MS
approaches (also developed by MDS Sciex)
What went wrong
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Acceptance of the technology was slow since all
funding was directed towards DNA sequencing
at the time
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Wellcome foundation pulls out of BRC and some
funding disappears
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The complexity of the technology made it
somewhat unattractive
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With BRC transferring to UBC, funding becomes
a problem and Ruedi Aebersold leaves for U
Washington
Lack of Government Funding Leads
to “Separation”
Canadian
Researcher
Funding
Agency
Genome Canada
Competitions
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Competition II
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Competition – Human Health
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MDS Sciex and Genome Prairie team up to “Develop
Enabling Technologies for Proteomics Research”
University Hospital Network, MDS Sciex and Ontario
Genomics Institute successful in “Development of
MS-based Cytometers for Stem Cell Research”
Competition III
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MDS Sciex, Genome Prairie and Mt. Sinai Hospital
propose to develop new tools for biomarker discovery
and validation
Outcomes
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Competition II
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Competition – Human Health
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Project used as an example to parliament as to the
value of large-scale projects involving the triple helix
MDS Sciex backs out of major funding due to high
commercial risk. Sciex researchers form new company
to continue project.
Competition III
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Although reviews were excellent, having commercial
company lead the project was likely the reason for the
project being reject. Outcome of Sponsorship-gate.
In Conclusion
Benefits to Triple Helix
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New technologies and products arising from
university research
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Training of HQP to support industrial R&D in
Canada
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Licensing revenues for Universities
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Job creation for Canadians
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Products lead to higher living standards
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Allows Canadian academia and industry to
compete globally
Pitfalls to Triple Helix
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A highly successful research project may lead to
difficulties in technology transfer
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There are very few government funding
opportunities, particularly if industry is not willing
to match funds by greater than 50%
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Industry may not have the resources to
commercialize the technology
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In highly competitive areas, IP issues can
jeopardize commercialization plans