Service Offerings

The core of any research organization is its ability to generate impactful technology that has commercial value. Academia has long been known for its output of innovative technology from grant supported research. On the other hand, proprietary technology held by biomedical companies form the basis of competitive advantage in their technology commercialization efforts. Strategic Clarity Consulting helps clients in both of these sectors to assess the value proposition of technology and IP assets. In the academic setting, new technology is typically disclosed in a formal invention disclosure. Ideally, these disclosures provide a basis for critical decision-making regarding patentability and potential for commercialization. However, oftentimes academic invention disclosures fall short of providing sufficient information to permit timely go or no decisions. Overtime, expanding patent portfolios lead to inefficient usage of patent expense budgets.

Strategic Clarity Consulting uses its deep experience with academic clients to fully evaluate research inventions to permit clients to make timely and informed decisions regarding their technology portfolio. Biomedical industry clients who have IP assets in development can engage with Strategic Clarity Consulting to provide expert evaluation assistance to help leadership uncover potential competitors or barriers to entry. An evaluation by Strategic Clarity Consulting may also identify targeted in-licensing opportunities that may strengthen the core technology of the business and thereby enhance the commercial value of internal research programs.

Research technology assets form the basis for commercialization opportunities. However, it is important to strategically align the technology with the appropriate commercialization approach. Typically, the preferred approach is dependent on several factors related to the specific technology, including its stage of development, strength of its proprietary position and breath of its potential application.

Strategic Clarity Consulting can assist clients with an in-depth evaluation of their technology assets to determine the most suitable path of commercialization and identify prospective licensees or collaborators. A successful commercialization endeavor will likely require a license and related agreements between the relevant parties to formalize the commercialization effort. Strategic Clarity Consulting has deep expertise with licensing can provide clients with expert advice to appropriately structure the agreement and define equitable provisions that are optimized to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.

For some time, academic research institutions and independent entrepreneurs have pursued the formation of start-up ventures as a means to commercialize early stage technology. This approach remains popular because high risk early stage technologies are generally unattractive license opportunities to established companies. Nascent, yet high potential technologies, require long product incubation times and large amounts of capital to support technology development. As such, forming a new ventures to advance the development of early stage technology is oftentimes a viable strategy. However, the startup approach as a commercialization path should be considered carefully and should be supported with sound business and technical analyses.

With extensive hands-on expertise in new venture formation, Strategic Clarity Consulting can advise institutions and entrepreneurs regarding all matters pertaining to startups. Through a careful evaluation of the potential startup, Strategic Clarity Consulting will assess key factors that impact the startup such as the depth of proof of concept data and strength of the intellectual property i.e., is it defensible and free from third party blocking patents which could restrict the venture’s freedom to operate. Strategic Clarity Consulting will also assess the market perspective to determine if the subject technology has potential broad product or service applications which generally would favor a startup commercialization path.

The world has experienced an incredible surge in scientific and technological driven innovation.  In order for innovative research to be optimally developed, collaborative efforts with external parties that have complementary skills and assets are essential.  Indeed, the ability to effectively form research partnerships or alliances should be considered an activity of strategic importance to sustain innovation and translate its potential into commercial development.

Strategic Clarity Consulting provides both academic and biomedical organizations expert strategic advisement services to help clients analyze their research goals and objectives.  In the event a recommended partnership strategy emerges from this analysis, Strategic Clarity Consulting can skillfully assist in structuring and negotiating collaborative research agreements to specifically address the clients’ technology needs.  In this way, a foundation is shaped to promote a productive partner relationship going forward.

Strategic Clarity Consulting also recognizes that existing research partnerships often experience operational issues between the parties.  If these issues are not addressed, under-performance or even termination can result.  Strategic Clarity Consulting can provide advisement services to evaluate existing partnerships/alliances and recommend appropriate adjustments to keep the relationship on track and focused on achievement of long-term goals.

Effective technology commercialization requires the integration of a complex series of related processes and projects to support the goals of an organization to move innovation into the market.  It is good practice for these organizations to seek an external review of its policies and processes to ensure that the organization is meeting the expectations of leadership and other internal stakeholders.  Such a review can identify obstacles impacting organizational performance and moreover, provide an opportunity to implement recommended changes to enhance productivity and achievement of operational goals.

Having extensive experience in both academia and industry sectors, Strategic Clarity Consulting is well positioned to provide strategic advisement in all areas of technology transfer and at all points on the innovation continuum.  Strategic Clarity Consulting can evaluate matters related to policy, marketing and communication practices, performance metrics, staff mentoring and other activities that impact the performance of an organization that is engaged in technology commercialization.

Clinical trials are increasingly costly and complex.  The multi-party nature of clinical trial agreements with academic institutions where the industry sponsor, the institution, and the principal investigator are together as parties to the agreement often lead to difficult negotiations.  In addition, many studies are now focused on combination drug therapies where the tested pharmaceuticals may be owned by different parties which further adds to the complexity.  In the course of negotiating clinical trial agreements, the parties often hit bumps in the road as difficult business issues, such as ownership of intellectual property rights, are encountered. 

Having extensive experience in structuring and negotiating clinical trial agreements, Strategic Clarity Consulting can provide expert guidance to both institutions and biopharma companies to address issues early on so that a mutually beneficial clinical trial relationship can ultimately be achieved.