Health And Biotech Venture Ecosystems

EPS9504 Health and Biotech Venture Ecosystems

1.5 Intensive Elective Credits

Health and Biotech Venture Ecosystems is an intensive 2-day course which prepares life science entrepreneurs for patient driven collaboration in the development of new life science products and services.

Boston is considered the leading life science cluster in the world. Much of this can be attributed to an ecosystem strategy where industry, academia, and government share the same combined interest to advance patient advocacy. There is also a philanthropic ecosystem of altruism which fuels early-stage innovation which includes patient advocacy organizations, high-net worth individuals, and common patients and families which can help to validate and supercharge a new venture.

In this course students explore an opportunity space and ideate a new product or service using a patient driven business development process that socializes their innovation in the innovation ecosystem. Guest speakers from leading life science organizations will help students to learn how to generate trust within the communities they serve by collaborating with the leading patient advocates within their ecosystem. Students will learn how to explore the business drivers for their specific venture idea by working with stakeholders such as hospitals, health plans, key opinion leaders, and advocacy organizations. They will learn first-hand from industry leaders who will share the best practices associated with patient driven business development. Students will also learn from other global health ecosystems to understand how they collaborate with other ecosystems to promote success.

The students will be expected to interact with outside organizations to make progress. Students will connect with alumni or other experts as they need additional project support. Student are assessed based on their resourcefulness, project progress, and completion of course readings and activities. Students will have the opportunity to share their projects with the broader global health community through the Healey Center for Global Healthcare Entrepreneurship at Babson.

Day 1 will include classroom instruction of entrepreneurship fundamentals, group design thinking, and early-stage business ideation. Students will have a minimum of one-week to explore their opportunity space. Day 2 will include business iteration, marketing and sales strategy, and the culmination of the course is a presentation to an early-stage investor or corporate innovation manager.

Prerequisites: EPS7800 or equivalent