News & Announcements

2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005

2009

NeuRDS Inc., Revolutionizing Wireless Technology in Medical Devices
NeuRDS Inc. is a medical device component company that began as part of the NUvention course at Northwestern University. It has evolved from a group of seven randomly-assigned students from four of Northwestern’s graduate schools- Feinberg School of Medicine, McCormick School ofEngineering, Kellogg School of Management, and School of Law-to acompany that has completed its first stock offering, has more than 30 shareholders, and has won or been a finalist in various startup competitions.

As part of the NUvention program at Northwestern, members of the team that eventually formed NeuRDS Inc. examined various issues facing providers, patients, and other parties in the medical field of neurosurgery. Based on its observations, NeuRDS Inc. is focusing on developing wireless systems for various implanted medical devices.

Since the end of the class in May, NeuRDS Inc. has continued to be very active-and successful. It won the 2009 NU Venture Challenge, a prestigious campus-wide venture competition financing Northwestern University student startups. It was also selected as a finalist in I-Bio’s state-wide competition for medical device companies. NeuRDS Inc. had its first private stock offering in July. The demand was so high that NeuRDS was faced with the enviable situation of receiving 35% more funding than its goal.

NeuRDS Inc. has also attracted the attention of one of the largest medical device companies in the world, a relationship that it will pursue once its technology is further developed and the company has filed more patent applications. NeuRDS is currently seeking qualified individuals to add to its Board of Advisors, which already includes industry leaders in neurosurgery, medical devices, and individuals experienced in entrepreneurship.

Professor Alicia Loffler callsNeuRDS Inc. one of the “most promising” teams to emerge from the program with“exciting and ground-breaking technology.” She states that it is a “business that hastremendous potential in the medical device industry. The significant funding that it hasreceived at an early stage in the business cycle combined with the validation of dozens ofindustry experts at venture competitions is a testament to the bright future of thisbusiness.”

When asked about the future of the company, NeuRDS Inc.’s President, Jacob Babcock,says, “The tremendous success of our private placement stock offering provides us withthe opportunity to develop a technology that could be groundbreaking in the field ofneurosurgery and other medical fields . . . The NeuRDS Inc. team is poised to utilize this funding and the diverse talents of its staff and advisors to make a meaningful impact in the lives of patients and providers.” (06/2009)

About NeuRDS Inc.:
NeuRDS, Inc. is a medical device component manufacture company specializing in the development of wirelesstechnology for medical devices.

About NUvention:
NUvention is an interdisciplinary program that brings together students from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, McCormick School of Engineering, Kellogg School of Management, and School of Law to address a medical need by inventing and commercializing a medical device. The course began in 2007 and hasalready spun-off companies that have licensed their inventions to major medical device manufacturers, created fulltime working environments for highly educated individuals, and continues to develop solutions to pressing medical problems.

Visiting Scholar
The Center welcomes Raine Hermans for the summer of 2009. Dr. Hermans is the Director of Regional operations at Tekes in Helsinki, Finland. Tekes is the main public funding organization for research and development (R&D) and innovation in Finland. In addition to Helsinki headquarters, the regional office network of Tekes employs 90 people and consists of 14 innovation and international business departments all over Finland. Dr. Hermans is the adjunct professor at the Helsinki School of Economics. The Helsinki School of Economics (HSE) is the largest and leading business school in Finland and a globally acknowledged player in management education. At HSE, Dr. Hermans explores how the company or industry can create value by utilizing innovation management as a part of their everyday operations, strategic planning and valuation schemes. While at Kellogg, Dr. Hermans will lead a research project on the economic impact of the biopharmaceutical industry in Illinois. This study will analyze the sector’s direct and indirect contributions to the state economy. In addition, the project will assess the value of companies’ intellectual capital through evaluation of their expected growth. This study intends to generate important policy implications on the innovation policies of the state of Illinois. (06/2009)

Alicia Löffler, Director of the Center for Biotechnology Management will be spoke at a forum on medical innovation in Washington D.C. on June 12, 2009. Other panelists include Senator Arlen Spector, Dick Gephardt, Billy Tauzin and Brett Giroir. (06/2009)

The 2009 Annual Biotechnology Case Competition, sponsored by Genzyme took place on January 31, 2009 at the Kellogg School’s James L. Allen Center. The 55 students competing in the Case Competition came from top business schools around the globe, including the London Business School. But the top prize went to a local team: four students from the Kellogg School. Read more (01/2009)

2008

The Annual Biotech & Healthcare Case Competition, sponsored by Genzyme, is featured in the article "Kellogg biotechnology competition draws global interest" (12/2008)

Eli Lilly President and CEO John Lechleiter delivered one of the keynotes at the Nov. 1 Business of Healthcare Conference, held at the Kellogg School of Management. Lechleiter cited a number of hurdles his industry faces, including an “innovation drought.” Read more (11/2008)

The 2009 Annual Kellogg Biotechnology Case Competition, Sponsored by Genzyme
This year’s premier Health Industry MBA Case Competition will take place on January 31, 2009 at the Kellogg School’s James L. Allen Center.  MBA students from the top business schools around the world are invited to participate.  A new case will be featured. Cash Prizes of $5,000, $1,500 and $500 will be awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners. T he first place winners will also get to meet Genzyme's CEO and top executives in Boston. Genzyme key executives will provide a debriefing on the case at the Awards Dinner immediately following the team presentations. (10/2008)

Second Biotechnology Insider-Forum and welcome event will be held on October 7, from 12-1:30pm in Jacob's Room 276. The forum is a personal dialogue with industry alums to get tips on managing career in the biotech/pharma sector and will be moderated by Alicia Löffler. Lunch will be served. (10/2008)

Executives from Bristol Myer Squibbs, Roche Diagnostics, Novartis, Abbott, MedImmune, Amgen etc attended the Science for Managers executive course offered in association with Johns Hopkins Medical School in Chicago from Sept 15-18. The program was a big success. The particpants valued the content and caliber of the faculty. (09/2008)

Strategies for Management of Intellectual Property in collaboration with WIPO took place from June 9-12, 2008 in Weiboldt Hal. This year the group was truly international with participants from UK, Switzerland, Italy, New Zealand, India, China, South Africa, Finland, Japan, Mexico and US. (06/2008)

Rick Duke, director of the Natural Resource Defense Council’s Center for Market Innovation spoke to the Kellogg School community on March 7, in an event sponsored by the Center for Biotechnology. Read more in the article "McKinsey report heats up global warming debate" (03/2008)

Innovations in Biotechnology impact our health, our environment, our food and hence our future. The technology has redefined the way medicine and agriculture is practiced and will redefine the way our environment is managed. Contamination of the water, air and soil due to human activity is going to have a far reaching and detrimental effect on our health. Bioremediation offers a potentially inexpensive and sustainable form of waste disposal leading to a cleaner environment. The Center is organizing an informative session on Reducing US Greenhouse gases: Opportunities, Costs, New Technologies with Rick Duke, Director of NRDC Center for Market Innovation. Before joining NRDC in 2007, Rick was at McKinsey & Company, where he consulted on strategy, operations, and organization. His final project at Mckinsey was a risk management and growth strategy study for one of the largest developers of clean development mechanisms. Rick has a doctorate in Public and International Affairs from Princeton. (03/2008)

William Kozy, executive vice president of Becton, Dickinson and Company, was the keynote speaker at the 2008 Business of Healthcare Conference held January 19th. Read more in the story "Kellogg Healthcare Conference touts personalized medicine" (01/19/2008)

2007

Luminex CEO Patrick J. Balthrop '96 (EMP-32) addressed the Biotechnology Management program at a reception for new students on September 17. Read more in the article "Luminex CEO Balthrop ’96: Know the global market" (09/17/2007)

Scott Stern, Research Director of the Center for Biotechnology Management just received a three year grant from the National Science Foundation on The Impact of Science Policy on the Rate & Direction of Scientific Discovery. The proposal reviewed by the National Bureau of Economic Research was a team effort between Scott, Fiona Murray of MIT and Jeff Furman of Boston University. It focuses on the development and implementation of novel tools for quantitative analysis of the impact of science policy interventions on the process of cumulative scientific discovery. These tools can then be fruitfully applied to provide novel policy analysis for a range of science policy interventions, from choices about the level of (and restrictions on) public funding, rules governing access to scientific research materials and data, and policies regarding intellectual property rights for discoveries resulting from the scientific process. In particular, the proposed tools allow for the evaluation of science policy intervention on the rate and direction of scientific progress, and allows for the evaluation of the distributional consequences of policy initiatives. (09/01/2007)

A university-wide collaborative course Medical Innovation (BIOT-915) will be offered in Fall 2007. This two quarter long course will be inter-disciplinary, involving students and faculty from Law, Medicine, Engineering and Business. Faculty members include: Alicia Löffler (Kellogg School Center for Biotechnology), Patrick McCarthy (Feinberg School of Medicine), Michael Marasco (McCormick School of Engineering) and Clinton Francis (NU School of Law) are directors for the course. This innovative course focuses on identifying unmet clinical needs followed by medical technology solutions to address these needs. Speakers from the industry will be invited to complement the teachings of the faculty. By the end of the second quarter, an actual product will be generated by the students along with a presentation to potential investors and experts in Medical Innovation. (08/31/2007)

back to the top

Business for Scientists and Engineers: The Kellogg School will partner with the McCormick School of Engineering, the Feinberg School of Medicine and the Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences to offer a new three module business course for the faculty at Northwestern University. The three modules are scheduled for Dec 7-9, 2007, January 11-13, 2008 and February 9-11, 2008 and will be held at Weiboldt Hall, on the Kellogg School's downtown-Chicago campus. (08/31/2007)

A new initiative — Leadership Bootcamp — will be offered in Spring 2008 to provide students with a unique opportunity. The bootcamp provides "living case" experience to the issues encountered and decisions required to enhance drug development and commercialization. It is designed to allow students to think “out of the box” and develop innovative management skill. Nancy Hill (class of 1990) of Spiration, Inc. is developing the bootcamp which is chaired by our advisory board member John Larson (class of 1992). (08/31/2007)

Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and Johns Hopkins Medicine team up for Biotechnology/Business education offerings (03/08/2007)

back to the top

Executive Courses
Business for Scientists (Module 1: March 12-14, 2007; Module 2: April 12-14, 2007; Module 3: May 19-21, 2007) at the Mt Washington Conference Center, Baltimore, Maryland.

Strategies for Management of Intellectual Property (June 11-14, 2007) at Weiboldt Hall, Kellogg's Chicago campus.

Science for Managers (Sept 19-22, 2007) at Weiboldt Hall, Kellogg's Chicago campus.

Read about the 2007 Kellogg Biotech and Healthcare Conference in the article "New problems, new solutions: Innovation and obstacles fuel discussion at 7th annual biotech conference."

2006

Welcome Reception
Welcome reception for the incoming Biotech students on Sept 13, 2006 from 5:30 - 7:00pm in Room 1246. Come and hear from Biotech alum Chris Ehrlich of Interwest Partners on Leadership in the Biomedical Sector. Mr Ehrlich, a Partner at the company is a member of its Life Science division. His work focuses on investing in and building new businesses around entrepreneurs with novel therapeutic approaches. He currently serves on the boards of BioMimetic Pharmaceuticals, Carbylan BioSurgery, Inc., KAI Pharmaceuticals, QuatRx Pharmaceuticals, TransOral Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Xenon Pharmaceuticals. Mr Ehrlich was involved with founding AlgoRx Pharmaceuticals, a pain therapeutics company that recently merged with Anesiva, formerly Corgentech (ANSV). He is on the advisory board of the Kellogg Center for Biotechnology.Prior to joining InterWest in 2000, Ehrlich has held executive positions at Purdue Pharma, Genentech, and LEK.
If you have any questions, please contact Sangeeta Vohra

Visiting Professor Raine Hermans has published a book: Sustainable Biotechnology Development
This book analyses the features of the Finnish biotechnology industry from three complementary perspectives as a basis for a strategic sustainable biotechnology development framework:

1) How do the company leaders see the future of the industry?
2) How do the companies valuate their intellectual property rights?
3) How does the regional resource allocation reflect the prosperity of the industry?

To read more about the book and for ordering information, visit the ETLA Web site.

back to the top

Visiting Professor
The Kellogg Center for Biotechnology welcomes visiting professor Raine Hermans for the year 2006. Raine comes from ETLA - The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, Finland. Raine leads multidisciplinary projects on managerial economics of biotechnology. At the Kellogg School, Raine will be performing studies on forecasting the future sales of the bio-pharmaceutical start-ups, analyzing biotechnologies as a competitive edge of the Forest industry, and simulating the impacts of biotechnology based energy applications together with experts from related fields. Curriculum Vitae

Executive Education
Biotechnology: Strategies for IP Management, June 7-10, 2006. For information and registration contact Jeanne Sheppard.

2005

Alumni Survey
Please take a moment to fill out our Biotech Alumni Survey and check out the other resources available to biotech alums.

The Tech Venture Book, Kellogg on Biotechnology, is here!
The second book in the NU Press Series for the Kellogg School — Kellogg on Biotechnology — is now available. The book is the outgrowth of the collaborative student-faculty effort called Tech Venture . For more information, please visit the NU Press Web site.

back to the top

Biotech Case Competition
Winner of the first annual Biotech Case Competition (April 15, 2005), sponsored by Genzyme was the team from Kellogg (Anna McVittie, Josh Neiman, Raymond Fecteau and Amol Mahajan). The second prize went to the team from the University of Michigan.

Biovision World Life Sciences Conference
Three students Dario Benavides, Bernardo Garcia-Manzano, and Stephen Waddell, nominated by the Center, attended the prestigious Biovision World Life Sciences Conference in Lyon, France from April 8-15, 2005.

back to the top