Johns Hopkins University launched its Fast Forward business accelerator two years ago as a way to support the growth of its own entrepreneurial community, but also to help stimulate the Baltimore economy. It recently opened a second accelerator space on the East Side of Baltimore by its medical campus. It’s designed to equip life science startups with the kind of wet lab space that tends to come at a premium and is often too costly for early stage companies with an uncertain future.
It is part of a trend taking place on university campuses around the country as they seek to ramp up the commercialization of their technology not only through licensing deals, but to also support the development of scientist entrepreneurs. Some have started seed funds, others are integrating entrepreneurship into their academic programs.
In an interview with Elizabeth Smyth, who serves as director of strategic initiatives at Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, she talked about its Fast Forward program and how it fits into Johns Hopkins’ strategy to invest in ways to support commercialization.
“We are a research institution at our core, but we are increasingly supporting scientists who want to take an entrepreneurial path.”
Fast Forward East is closely tied to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Rent is subsidized by the university and with an eye to the uncertainty of early stage life science companies, these businesses only need to give 30 days notice before leaving. The two-floor building’s communal and office space covers 4,000 square feet and it has enough wet lab space for up to seven companies.
Although there are a number of life science and digital health businesses that reside at the accelerator, there are also several businesses that have a virtual membership. They can benefit from its mentoring programs that provide insights on strategy as well as legal, marketing, operational, and funding issues.
“Our goal is to support Baltimore’s entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Smyth said. “Fast Forward is not just for Johns Hopkins companies. We want to support companies in Baltimore that stand the greatest chance for success.”
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
It may not be only for Hopkins companies, but they certainly dominate. Fast Forward has received 64 applications and so far has accepted 33 ventures into the program, according to its website. Among the early stage businesses in its accelerator system are Tissue Analytics, a graduate of the DreamIt Health accelerator program in Philadelphia. A couple of biomedical engineering graduates of Johns Hopkins University founded the business, which uses image analysis of smartphone photos to remotely manage how wounds are healing.
GrayBug is another accelerator member. It wants to make drug delivery for eye medication more effective. Its founder, Justin Hanes, is a professor of ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute and director of the Center for Nanomedicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
One non-Johns Hopkins company in the accelerator is Strajillion, a technology startup to help parents monitor their children’s Internet activity.
Taking note of my office address at the University City Science Center in Philadelphia, Smyth said Johns Hopkins has similar aspirations. “Like the [UC] Science Center, we want this to become an innovation district. Our accelerator is right in shadow of the medical school. Tenants up there are potential corporate partners for startups.”
One important point is that Johns Hopkins is not taking an equity stake in companies in the accelerator. One of its roles is to steer companies to funding opportunities and grant programs. Another is to help them rigorously test their hypotheses. Johns Hopkins is a regional participant in the I-Corps program. Smyth supports the principle that failure isn’t a bad thing, so long as it happens early.
“We will work closely with these companies to test their hypothesis…A ‘no-go’ isn’t a bad answer.” Like a lot of universities, it has limited resources so failing early is a positive.
There are plenty of digital companies peppered among the life science companies in Johns Hopkins startup community. Has that been driven by the launch of DreamIt Health Baltimore? Yes and no, is Smyth’s response.
The push to electronic medical records was happening anyway, she said. “DreamIt Health Baltimore certainly has helped. It’s a combination of the environment we’re in and the spotlight in cost saving in healthcare.”
