14 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN | WORLDVIEW ©MICHAEL AUSTIN
Changing Lanes Companies thrive when workers are willing to give up their comfort zones and learn from each other BY ERIC BENDER It takes a village of varied talents to raise a successful biotechnology firm, and it helps when the villagers speak each other’s languages. Scientists and engineers often work directly on teams with other employees who lack a strong science background, and this collaboration is easier when everyone knows a little about each other’s professional challenges and how to discuss them. More broadly, a company works together better when everyone’s contributions to its mission are better understood. Achieving this level of understanding doesn’t always come easy. Non-technical staff might easily be bewildered by the overwhelming complexity and quick advances in today’s biomedical research. Scientists and engineers, in turn, may have little experience in talking and collaborating with a diverse group of employees in finance, information technology, marketing or manufacturing. The technical staff could also be thoroughly unfamiliar with the rapidly evolving world of biotechnology-related businesses, such as the pharmaceutical industry and clinical care. These gaps call for cross-disciplinary education, either on the job or in more formal training, says Stephen Sammut, a venture capitalist focusing on healthcare in emerging markets and a senior fellow in healthcare management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. A certain level of scientific literacy is required, but so is literacy in other areas, particularly for those in leadership roles, Sammut says. The Biotechnology Entrepreneurship Boot Camp, which has taken place for 11 years at the annual meeting of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), displays the breadth of business literacy issues facing biotechnology firms. The two-day training program covers opportunity assessment, pitching investors, capitalization, partnering, market strategies, pricing and reimbursement strategies, regulatory planning, intellectual property, team-building, corporate social responsibility and even bioethics, among other topics. Whether you come from a scientific or a business background, “the learning challenge is integrating all of this,” says Sammut, cofounder of the Boot Camp. “In biotechnology, these things are all incredibly integrated. You really cannot think about intellectual property without considering patent protection, without considering regulatory implications, without considering reimbursement, and all of those have significant implications for your market strategy.” While such courses focus on a wide breadth of business components for company leadership, Sammut and other training veterans emphasize that all employees in biotechnology can benefit from interdisciplinary knowledge—especially when they can pick it up directly from those working in the other disciplines. TEACHING THE NON-TECHNICAL “If the last time people studied biology and chemistry was in high school, they really need to become more familiar with the process and the vocabulary of biochemistry and molecular biology,” says Sammut. “Those are very important and hard-earned disciplines. You’re not going to pick them up overnight. But having said that, you have to start somewhere.” He suggests that those seeking to boost their scientific literacy check out the programs for non-scientists offered by BIO and other groups. “If you can free yourself up to go to one of these two- to three-day programs, accidentally or purposely leave your cellphone at home, do the pre-reading assignments and really open your mind, you can get comfortable with a lot of concepts relatively quickly,” he says. “It doesn’t mean that you can develop any kind of scientific judgement but it may get you to the point where you can formulate questions, or at least sit down with an expert in the field and talk about what needs clarification.” Another good option for people entering the industry without much science exposure is to take the free and high-quality online courses given by organizations such as edX and Coursera, suggests Steve Casper, dean of the School of Applied Life Sciences at the Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) in Claremont, California. Although previous science experience probably helps anyone employed in biotechnology, it’s not a requirement for most of those who work outside the labs, says Karen Anderson, senior vice president for human resources at BIOTECH SUCCESS ... AND FAILURE 15
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