Eight Philadelphia-area organizations and companies are teaming up to promote the Southeast Pennsylvania region as a leader in healthcare innovation.
Partners in the new Health Care Innovation Collaborative include Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, communications behemoth Comcast, Drexel University, Independence Blue Cross Blue Shield, venture capital firm Safeguard Scientifics, Thomas Jefferson University/Jefferson Health System and University of Pennsylvania Health System. The CEO Council for Growth, part of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, convened the group.
Ben Franklin Technology Partners and fellow VC firm Rittenhouse Ventures each is pledging $1 million to the project to support innovative healthcare startups in the greater Philadelphia area. Each founding partner has committed $50,000 to fund startup costs, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.
“In its most simple form, the collaborative helps early-stage companies avoid the guessing game they often face, wondering what solutions large healthcare institutions are looking for and developing products or services that may or may not be needed,” Dan Hilferty, president and CEO of Independence Blue Cross, as well as co-chair of the CEO Council’s Health Care Innovation Task Force, said in a written announcement.
“Instead, through the collaborative, innovators can better tailor their solutions to directly address the health challenges both they and healthcare organizations feel are critical. That will save time, energy and money, and bring solutions to market faster to keep people well,”
The other co-chair, Drexel President John Fry, said that the collaborative bridges the worlds between large institutions and entrepreneurs. “These two communities greatly need one another but often struggle to connect due to excessive ‘noise’ and unmatched product supply and demand,” he said.
“We are convinced that the Philadelphia region can become an international solutions center, where our business, educational and healthcare institutions can be a hub for innovation for the nation,” added Steven Klasko, president and CEO of TJU and Jefferson Health System. “We believe we must contribute to America’s leading role in creating an optimistic future for all of us and new ways to build healthcare that improves the lives of patients at home and in their communities.”
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.
Philadelphia already is home to DreamIt Health, an accelerator that collaborates with some of the Health Care Innovation Collaborative partners.
