Innovation hub for pharma and biotech startups open for entries

Information analytics company, Elsevier, has announced that applications and nominations for its innovation hub, The Hive, are now open to pharma and biotech startups.

For 2017, the company has revealed that at least eight startups working on innovative goals will be chosen to become part of the hub. Additionally, unlimited spaces are available for ‘exceptional candidates’.

Startups included in The Hive will have access to Elsevier’s suite of digital solutions for 18 months to assist in their research.

“We created The Hive in 2016 to highlight the trend in the industry that has seen biotech and pharma start-ups become centres of cutting-edge science. This trend is continuing in 2017 – many of the most promising drug candidates and discoveries in R&D pipelines originate from these early stage companies,” commented Tamas Szarvas, CMO, Corporate R&D, Elsevier’s R&D Solutions. “In 2017, The Hive will continue to highlight the fresh, innovative and agile world of R&D that is taking place within startups, and we look forward to welcoming a new group of participants. Additionally, we know that the industry is always looking to learn from these innovation powerhouses, and The Hive offers a far-reaching platform for sharing success stories.”

“Being part of The Hive has given exposure to our company and the team’s work. It has also allowed hands on training for programs that will help us make better informed decisions on lead compound selections, and increase our productivity by reducing our efforts spent on finding everything that is relevant and trustworthy for our research,” commented Claudia A. McDonald Bøen, PhD, CEO of Arctic Pharma AS — 2016 participant in The Hive. “Elsevier’s solutions contain extensive and detailed information on chemical compounds/structures, visualization of disease mechanisms, metabolomics data, and predictions on drug-drug interactions — all of which are important to further develop our cancer therapies.”

“A significant challenge for any company developing a broadly applicable platform technology is to quickly gather, assess, and act upon information across the many different disease and technical areas associated with drug candidate development. Areas of research cover the science and biology of course; as well as IP, clinical, and commercial considerations. But that’s what is great about being part of The Hive. Participation has provided us with an amazing array of resources with which to successfully meet this challenge,” commented Tom Wickham, vice president R&D at Rubius Therapeutics, participant in The Hive 2016.

Those considered to be top candidates for this opportunity are pre-revenue pharmaceutical and biotech startups, and other small companies, actively involved in the advancement of early stage research that have at least 10 scientists on staff. Companies can either apply or be nominated for enrolment into The Hive. Any potential entry must complete a questionnaire on the specifics of their research, funding and goals for the next 18 months as well as complete the Elsevier’s Solution Finder to assess which solutions will be most useful. Candidates on the short list will also be interviewed by telephone before the final selection of successful entrants is made.