Episode 9: The New Model for Business Development and Industry Engagement with Key Opinion Leader James Zanewicz

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Hi, welcome back to Bio from the Bayou. My name is Dr. Elaine Hamm, and I'm the executive in residence at the Tulane School of Medicine and I'm also your host for today. But today I am flipping things around a little bit and making one of your normal hosts our guest.

Oh, this is weird.

And that person is— I know, I know, you're in the hot seat now. So with me today is James Zanewicz, the chief business officer at the School of Medicine and the He's the principal Tulane point of connectivity for companies and investors in the biotech space, and he is joining us today to talk about what Tulane does differently and what you have accomplished in your role so far, and why companies, investors, and other external partners should engage with the Tulane School of Medicine team. So thanks for joining us, James.

Great to be here.

All right, well, we are about to enter into sort of another conference season, so we have a big partnering event coming up in June called BIO, one of the largest So, this is one of the largest partnering events in the world, and I want to talk about how this Tulane School of Medicine takes a little bit of a different approach to partnering. So before we get into anything else, I want you to talk about what your approach is with industry and investors, particularly at this event.

So we try and do things in a little bit of a different way. Of course, we look at the traditional things. We market innovations to companies who are looking to in-license. We will market potential collaborative research opportunities, but we'll also position our scientists and physicians as key opinion leaders, either for short timeframes or for longer-term board opportunities as chief scientific officers or advisors. We'll dig into tools, techniques, patient populations that we may have available here in New Orleans that can be useful to companies as they advance their product lines. We'll encourage investors to look at their companies they've already invested in, in addition to our companies arising from the Gulf South, and think about, are there ways we can help them, whether that's through our network and our connections and other investors, other companies we may know that we can pair them with, or tools or assets at Tulane. Really just kind of blowing up the old model and seeing the sky as the limit, as opposed to what people traditionally thought of as partnering before.

I think that's great. And that's one of the reasons why I wanted to join your team really, is that it wasn't this focus on this transactional relationship where it's, we have a technology, you license it from us and buy. What you have really done is start building the process earlier Pre the creation of a technology and really made it much more of a holistic approach. And, and this is something that you've been doing for quite some time and you have a pretty impressive return on investment. So what were some of these key early wins for you?

We started this back in 2015, as you referenced, you know, a bit ago. And when you subtract COVID out, I guess it's, you know, roughly 5 years. But some of the key early wins were basic things where we had contracts that were stuck and through no one's fault of their own, There were perhaps negotiations on points or people not understanding what was meant. And we had one corporate contract for testing and training that was worth between $1 and $2 million that was stuck in another shop. And so we really shepherded that along, and that would not have moved forward but for us kind of helping and being a champion and trying to make sure that pieces move forward with it. We had lots of other contracts that we initiated with big players such as Gilead, Bayer, and Elanco. We had an innovation that moved forward to license that had been sitting around for a while. From a contact we made at BIO. We had an access to early-stage medical trials in oncology, gave patients earlier access to a possible treatment with Bayer Health. We also really focused on getting answers quickly, even if an answer is no, or we refer you to somebody else. One of the other wins is a $4 million contract that we were able to save for Dr. Lisa Maricci, where she had a contractor that was doing a service Fall out, and she had a limited amount of dollars to spend on that service, and people were coming in and saying, it's $2 million. And through our network of company connections, we were able to find someone who could do it for what she had budgeted, which saved that entire contract, which was amazing. And then finally, I'd say our relationship with AtomWise, which was really interesting at the time, where they performed a lot of drug screening for us to figure out if there were compounds out there that could hit the targets and have an effect that our scientists had identified and really finding those treatments that could impact the marketplace and the fact that we had a several-year relationship with them where we were sort of a special university partner.

No, I love that. And the getting answers quickly, even if it's no, is such an important piece. I mean, I love that about your office. Before I joined it, it was always a really quick response time. And, you know, I joke about how tech transfer can sometimes be like the DMV of commercialization and moving things along quickly and finding, you know, where the red tape is and just going through and cutting it. is really important as we try to advance things from bench to bedside, as we say. And so I really appreciate what your office is doing. What do you attribute some of these successes to? You mentioned some of your successes, but what do you really attribute this to?

I think it's pretty simple. It's going where they are. We travel to industry events. We don't just sit and wait for people to come to us and discover our science or send emails. We're at BIO, we're at JPM, we're at all the industry events. We're going to Industry Days at MassBio in Boston, and we actually became one of the early university members in MassBio because it's the largest biotech state in the country. We treat every relationship as a long-term partnership where we're not looking for short-term transactional wins, but looking to bring them value in every way we possibly can. And that, that also, I think, includes listening as much as talking. An example of that is that we shifted pretty quickly from tear sheets and one-pagers into pitch decks because we heard from industry, what we want is a 5 to 7 page pitch deck, and we don't want you to tell us about the market. We know that. We want you to get straight to the information we need. And we really, really worked on that. And I think finally in that relationship and going where they are is we don't just think in the US, we think globally. We are part of a global institution. Tulane University has tremendous reach, and we've continued that in the BD function where we're at BioEurope, we're at BioTrinity, We're going to interact with companies that aren't necessarily in the US because there's value in collaborating there as well.

Again, I love the long-term partnership piece of it because it makes it less transactional and more of a collaboration. And, and you also touched on this of where you, you listen, and that's a lot of business development is just knowing what your audience wants, right? And, and being able to take that into consideration is so important. But beyond just helping our researchers and our scientists and clinicians at Tulane find ways to engage with industry, you also have helped startups Particularly startups that have come out of Tulane, startups like AxoSim, Obatala, and BioAesthetics. Let's talk about how you've helped startups that have come out of Tulane.

I guess the most solid example is BioAesthetics and the fact that we were instrumental in helping them to move forward. And that, funnily enough, came out of a relationship with another company that had their reception at JPM one year at IndieBio. And while I was there, I was like, this is a really cool place. What's this? And the company that had the reception there said, you know, actually IndieBio mentioned they wanted to connect in New Orleans and couldn't find anyone. And yeah, I raised my hand as usual and said, hi, I'm right here. And we went down and met with the team and they came out to visit 2 weeks later. Dr. Nick Pachos was sat down with them as part of their discovery efforts here. And while we sat there, and there's a whole separate podcast on this we dropped recently, a week later he was out at IndieBio going through their process and getting that full kind of Silicon Valley, how to be an investable company, tremendous connections, tremendous investment. And his company has actually become very, very successful and is finishing their first phase of clinical trials and is about to have products on the market.

I think our listeners would think that it makes sense that we would be involved in our startup companies, but that's actually not always the case at universities. I have worked with universities where it's very much once the license has gone out the door, it's good luck. And then where's our license fee this year? Which has always seemed strange to me. I mean, you want your startups to be successful and support has to come beyond just that license agreement. How can we help you be more successful? And we represent these companies when we're out at a conference too. Just because we're not technically their BD arm doesn't mean that we can't act that way, which I think is really, really great and also quite different from a lot of universities.

No, it's fun. Like, we get, we get to learn all the cool stuff that happens after it leaves the university as well and help it move forward further. And it's great to continue working with those scientists and business people.

Absolutely. Again, it goes back to the long-term relationships and collaborations, which I think is, is a good key difference that I think Tulane brings to the table. But beyond these sort of traditional metrics that people think of when we talk about business development, you have a little bit of a different ROI than maybe people think of when we talk about business development within a school of medicine. What are some steps that you try to make things more industry-friendly as it relates to activities that are going on here?

I think one of the key things is just being that concierge, that front door, and the fact that a lot of our ROI is that something bad didn't happen. Or something didn't get stopped. And it's hard to quantify that in some ways because it's not that we directly had this deal that made millions of dollars, but deals came in or continued because of the relationships we have or because of our ability to help maneuver and pull the right pieces within the university together to move things forward. Another key piece I think was our website. We were very intentional. We did not just throw up a website. We took a good 6 months. worked with a UI/UX team that talked to companies, talked to investors, talked to the scientists outside, and really considered what they wanted to see. And we originally had started with, as we talked about, those tear sheets, and we've pivoted to briefer summaries, pitch decks, key opinion leaders, summarising our publications in English and with keywords so people can easily find the science coming out, but really getting information to people the way they want to receive it. And that also translated to our events, our things like Immersion Days, which is our precursor event where we just highlighted Tulane science and invited industry and investors into the university for the first time for a day, which grew into BIO on the Bayou in tandem with LSU Health alone. And then, as we did last year, when we came out of COVID and kind of emerged from our cocoon, really helping BIO on the Bayou reach its full potential by inviting about 12 to 14 other universities in the Gulf South with really great science that was often skipped over, get highlighted in a day in New Orleans where everyone wants to come and have dinner and some cocktails and listen to some jazz. But now they get great science at the same time. And we Never do it in summer when it's hot. But, you know, it's a, it's, it's a great way to bring the community together from the Gulf South and to give the outside realm a reason to come in because they, they get access to all these things at once for a very low investment, just their travel.

I love that. And, and I also love the words that you're using because it really indicates how fast-paced you really are. I mean, pivoting and changing quickly, those are things you hear in the startup world. And I've been on the tech transfer side, and that's not how I always felt. Like, we were— it felt like we were the cruise ship and startups, and those are the tiny speedboats. But one of the things that I've really liked about working with Tulane is that you guys aren't static, that you change and you evolve with the industry, and you don't just do things because that's how we've always done them, which is, you know, really, really important when it comes to innovation.

So— You know, I hate those words more than anything in the English language. It's always been that way. I'm like, well, then let's do it some other way, because why not? And if it doesn't work, then we'll try something else.

Yeah, because like we've always done it is not a good reason. That's an excuse. So I love that you will take some risk. I mean, honestly, it is sort of taking a risk when you move things and do things quickly. So speaking of pivots, though, like what are some examples of those pivots that you've made to help better engage with industry?

Well, we just talked about how we continue to evolve Bio in the Bayou, which I think was really important. But with that brand, we've also, you kind of taken that brand into the Bio from the Bayou podcast and the Bio from the Bayou event. So in addition to the events we have here, At industry events like BIO, we do a reception where we pull together the Louisiana community with a lot of our friends. And if folks are going to be at BIO 2023, since we're dropping this podcast in advance, hit us up and ask for an invite. It's an exclusive invite-only party, but we have Sazeracs and French 75s. We're going to have several of our amazing scientists from Tulane, Pennington, LSU Health there, and we're excited to have you meet them. I think another really interesting thing was our COVID-19 Digest, which we started on day 2 or 3 of the pandemic when things went crazy in the world. And I thought, okay, how can we be helpful? I said, you know, we can have our team summarize all the science about COVID And then we started sharing that in the university. And then we started sharing that with the world and actually took out advertisements for the Digest that grew the readership to about 3,500 healthcare systems and biotech companies, which was pretty impressive. And, you know, it's hard to quantify that ROI, but it's definitely there as far as brand elevation, brand value, and just providing information to the community. And we now, through Dr. K. Ginamaris, have been able to evolve that even further and take that into the Tulane Digest, which drops at industry events and during special occasions and focuses on topics of science in a nice, concise way that isn't just about Tulane science. It's about what's going on in the world. So again, it's that not for oneself, but for one's own motto that kind of infuses the ethos of everything we do. And then I'd say too, Elaine, your role as executive in residence.

Yeah.

We had a transition time in the office and I was like, Well, what do we do now? And you were like, I've got some time, I'm willing to help. And you asked what I wanted you to do. And I said, can you figure out how we do yet again something different? And you did. One of the key things was bringing in pieces to help our investigators with grants, like Jim Zadina, who got a $300,000 grant for his first year. And it's a $1.8 million grant overall that he attributed to somebody you brought in to help him with some key pieces of information that we wouldn't have had but for you being here.

Yeah, no, I love that we turned the podcast where you're the guest, you start talking about me, which I absolutely love. I did not plan that.

Oh, yeah, it's one of those things.

But that, you know, that COVID Digest, I, I mean, I wasn't even at Tulane at the time, but like, I loved that because it was such a key piece of information. I felt like you guys were a source of information in a time where there was so much disinformation going around. So, I mean, it became such a touchstone for me in the pandemic, and I have a PhD in microbiology, and I was Using the Two-Lane Digest as a way to help make sure that I was getting the information right too. And I think that that was really incredible. So, but this is this different sort of pivoting. I love that we're kind of evolving even today. We're now starting to do, at the end of this month, at the end of May, we're going to be doing something called Office Hours. Tell me a little bit about those. And of course, I'm really excited about this, so please give us the scoop on this.

Well, I agree. Like, this is a, this is a great thing. And it's funny, as I was thinking about this today, I realized that this is almost an extension of our immersion office concept that we unveiled at JPM in 2018, where we had a space in my office suite and we put in a desk and a computer and a printer and offered it to any company or investor who wanted to come spend time in New Orleans, who was here for conference. We gave them a place they could have meetings and we got national press out of that. Again, it's that pivot, that what's next. It's now office hours where we have full teams either coming in in person or virtually. To really engage with the community, to be more deep, more targeted in their conversations, to figure out who we can put in front of them that makes sense. And for the ones we have coming up with Boehringer Ingelheim, like they're bringing a full team from all swaths, from their BD team to their investment team. They're talking to startups, to scientists, and then they're doing an academy piece where they're actually educating the community and very graciously throwing a reception for us as well. And so, we're looking at trying to do maybe 1 or 2 of those in person a year and doing some virtual as well. And I just came back from London from BioTrinity and talked about this concept a lot and the number of people who really want to try this out virtually and then see if there's enough for them to come in in person because everyone wants an excuse to come to New Orleans. Let's be honest. That's a big part of the draw.

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

But it was palpable, this concept and the fact that I think this is a future thing for our office in many ways.

And it helps us not have to be stuck as the conduit. I mean, we don't have to be the go-between. When we bring industry here, they can tell the professors, you know, this is what we're really struggling with in terms of problems in our own, whether it's, you know, manufacturing a gene therapy, are there ways to make that a better process? Or this is a drug target that we are really struggling to find a drug for. I mean, so having them tell that directly to our researchers, that makes it more direct. I mean, we're not having to be the go-between, which I think is really important too. Before we go, I also wanted to I wanted to touch on something that you mentioned. You said community and, and how we have the reception at BIO where it's not just Tulane, it's also LSU and Pennington. And that is a really big difference that I found when I joined Tulane, is that you worked really well with LSU and the other surrounding universities, not just in Louisiana but in the Gulf South region. And I think that that's really great because of where we are. I'm in the Midwest. I mean, you're in the Gulf South. It can be really challenging to get biotech companies to come and take a look at us here. And I just wanted to point that out. Like, that's also a big difference. And I think that's the difference is that when you're talking to your office, you are also talking to the people that we know, and that goes beyond Tulane. And I just think that's a really great thing as well.

No, it's all about those relationships. You know, and Ole Miss, Jackson State, and Xavier University of Louisiana, I want to give tremendous shoutouts because they jumped on right away when we talked about expanding Bio on the Bayou, as did, quite honestly, the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville, my old hometown state. And it's pretty incredible what we can do as a region. And one that's often overlooked, but we got good stuff.

We do. Absolutely. So what's next?

I think continuing to evolve the podcast. Like, we're working with BIO From the Bayou and the Tulane Digest in tandem more and more, trying to figure out ways they can cross-pollinate. Continuing to listen and adapt office hours and BIO in the Bayou. We had a really senior and experienced business development professional tell us it was perfect last year, but of course nothing's ever perfect. There's always room to grow. And so we're figuring out how do we do that and what are the things we can add? Possibly looking into bringing back SALS CEO is something we did once right before the pandemic. And—

Yeah.

And we've been talking about, you know, bringing that back next year, maybe adjacent to an Office Hours as an exciting offering and leaning way more into that intersection of AI and healthcare. We talked about our work with Atomwise before, and that was sort of our first toe dip in. But we've been discussing a lot of possibilities with the AIH and Cyclica and the fact that we were so early involved with the Alliance for AI and Healthcare, or the AAIH, and how we might use technology to evolve science and evolve healthcare, I think is super important in where things are going. And then I think finally, you continue to explore our engagement with family offices. In fact, you and I have a separate podcast on that very topic dropping in tandem with this one.

Yes.

But it's a tremendous untapped area for the academy to interact with those groups. And I think there's so much potential, as you and I are finding, and we're figuring out how to leverage that most appropriately.

I love it. Well, one last question. How can companies and investors engage with you?

Oh, I mean, reach out to us at any time. The entire BD team, you, me, Kay, we have Calendly so people can drop something on our schedule when they want. Pretty much all of us just use our cell phones. We don't use desk lines, so they can get a hold of us by WhatsApp, text, all the ways. We're at industry events and you can find those at engage.tulane.edu. We list all of our industry events up there, including a link to it if we're going to be at BIO, BIO Trendy, BIO Europe. Bio, whatever it may be for acronym of the month. But you can see where we're going to be, and we have our plan for most of the year up there already so people can plan ahead. And I'd say too, yes, when you talk to us, never hesitate to throw out an idea or ask what we can do. We pride ourselves on being creative, on figuring out what's next, and trying to make sure that no isn't ever the answer. We always want to get to some sort of yes. And as you talked about, if the yes isn't with us, but it's with one of our colleagues or someone in our network, we make that connection because we want to do that Absolutely.

Well, as always, we will have the contact info for James, the BD office at Tulane Medicine, and some of the relevant links posted in our show notes. Make sure that you check us out to learn more about Tulane School of Medicine. Schedule meetings with us at BIO or at any other upcoming industry event. Well, James, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.

Thanks so much, Elaine. It was so weird to be on this side and be welcome.

I know. I know. I think we need to do this more often. I love it. Thanks again.

Thanks for joining us for Bio from the Bayou, and we hope you'll join us again.

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