Health IT, Pharma, Startups

Teva is looking for a few good entrepreneurs for a global drug launch platform

Generic pharmaceuticals manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: TEVA) wants to develop a platform to launch drugs […]

Generic pharmaceuticals manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: TEVA) wants to develop a platform to launch drugs globally and it’s calling on entrepreneurs to design one as part of the first Philly Enterprise Hackathon.

The Greater Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies or PACT is behind the competition as well as other businesses such as law firm Morgan Lewis, Safeguard Scientifics, First Round Capital and NextDocs. The idea is that producing solutions for such a complex challenge will lead to new technology companies and stimulate job growth in the region.

In an interview with MedCity News, Jon Congleton, the senior vice president for Teva’s global medicines group, said it was taking part because it wanted to support PACT and the legacy of the late Frank Baldino Jr. Baldino founded Cephalon and took an active role in supporting other Philadelphia entrepreneurs in their quest to start companies. He served as CEO of Cephalon until he died of complications from leukemia in 2010. Teva acquired the company in 2011.

The project for the Israel-based company, with North American headquarters in North Wales, Pennsylvania, would entail overcoming the complexities that typically accompany a drug launch, such as minding the regulatory framework that governs each market

Another is an internal project to improve communication between different departments in a user-friendly manner by designing an interface that would help different departments of the global business to share information aligned around specific brands.

Although Congleton pointed out that Teva has worked with drug development entrepreneurs, this is something a bit different for Teva’s Americas division, but a move he believes is a natural fit.

“Why not see what’s available locally? We support innovation and we’d get a solution to a problem. Entrepreneurs retain their intellectual property rights and Teva has rights to the solution they create.”

In addition to the life science track, there is also an infrastructure competition.

The deadline for submissions is April 19. To apply, register here. Five finalists will be picked to compete in a Shark Tank competition scheduled for May 1. Each track has a $50,000 prize purse along with $1,500 in Amazon Web Services credits, and incubation at shared work space Venturef0rth for four weeks with the Enterprise, a venture capitalist mentor and a local entrepreneur.

Shares0
Shares0