Lab rats learn to race: Scientists trained to turn knowledge
into money
Rowan Philp
CHARLOTTE Scholtz emerged from
university with cutting- edge procedures
in genetic testing to sell to the world.
She just had no idea how to do it. Scholtz’s
alternatives were the same grim bunch faced by scores of
newly qualified South African scientists every year: remain
a lecturer or a “lab rat”; be poached overseas;
or abandon her years of world-class research and take an
executive job with a corporate. Instead, armed with a brand-
new PhD, Scholtz and three other scientists took the brave
and rare leap of trying to start a company in the “real
world” on their own. Scholtz copied other invoices
for their own, and had to learn that they should start “001;
002”. But no one told her she should charge VAT... “You
don’t at any point get taught how to look at science
from a financial perspective — how are scientists
supposed to start biotech companies?”
Last month, Scholtz was one of 15 newly qualified scientists
inducted into a radical new programme designed to solve that
problem. Launched in Cape Town, the ES-million “Hellfire” programme
sponsors year-long internships for young scientists at carefully
chosen biotechnology companies, while providing intensive
business training to convert their science knowledge into
jobs and profit. The programme was developed by the
government-funded biotechnology incubator, Acorn Technologies,
and includes everything from a serious management course
from the Wits Business School to such seemingly wacky intern
assignments as cutting their own music CDs.
As a co-founder of her own company, Gene Care, Scholtz
is an exception to the internship rule. Most of her fellow
interns are placed with 10 firms and institutions, including
the Medical Research Council. “But, believe me, I need
it just as much,” says Scholtz. “In our case,
I need to know how to answer questions like: is there a market
for this particular [genetic test? It really is a jungle
out there, and small biotech companies without business skills
will be under threat.”
Aside from money raised by Acorn, Hellfire is being jointly
funded by Godisa, a joint incubator initiative of the departments
of Science and Technology and Trade and Industry. Charles
Wyeth, CEO of Godisa, said: “This is a first for early
career scientists, giving them the tools they need to cultivate
the kind of leadership at the frontiers of knowledge and
life sciences that will help drive entrepreneurship and foster
massive economic development in the Western Cape.”
The programme was the brainchild of Acorn CEO Peter Breitenbach,
who described the loss of top young scientists to foreign
countries and unrelated industries as “totally unacceptable”.
Breitenbach said the R5-billion “medical devices” sector “everything
from bedpans to hearing aids to hip replacements” was
one that had “lost out on who knows how many innovators” and
stood to benefit enormously from business- savvy life scientists.
He said the hundreds of jobs created by US biotechnology
innovator Dean Kamen — the man who invented the portable
kidney dialysis machine —- illustrated the jobs potential
that Hellfire interns might offer. “There is a huge
demand for management candidates in the life sciences arena,
particularly from the previously disadvantaged sector, but
there is a chronic shortage of suitably skilled people,” he
said. “Through Hellfire, we believe we can develop
a reliable feeder market of first-rate management material.” Breitenbach
says he hopes the programme will catalyse greater collaboration
between industry, government and tertiary education. “We
have an unbelievable opportunity to boost the economy by
working together to push the development and commercialisation
of new technologies and emerging biotech industries. “These
young scientists will be the pioneers of this drive and will
be equipped with the business tools and know-how to make
it happen.”
Offering a technology that forecasts disease using focused
gene testing, Gene Care has survived — and even grown —-
from the four founder members to 10 employees in three years.
Scholtz says she hopes her new training will help turn a
profit for the company next year, for the first time. But
she chuckles when she recalls how the company got off the
ground. After securing start-up help from Netcare and other
companies, the four scientists asked for a little help from
their friends. One member’s girlfriend was an accountant
who helped them register with SARS. Another had a sister
who was a graphic designer, and the sister’s boyfriend
was an IT whiz who could build them a website. Scholtz says: “Now
we’re starting to play a real role in helping prevent
life-threatening disease, and the research continues. I’m
glad we chose this path.”
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