Deloitte, QB3 partner for bioscience innovation

The California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) has entered into a collaboration with Deloitte to help the institute in its efforts to convert bioscience innovation into a driver for jobs, companies and improved health in California.

Deloitte, which will provide its services at no cost, will help QB3 develop an "innovation ecosystem," bringing together the four pillars of the bioscience community – academic research, government, industry and investors – to work in unison toward a common vision of economic growth and better health.

"The California economy and life sciences industry seem to be caught in an almost desperate search for creative new approaches," said QB3 Director Regis Kelly, PhD. "We see the 'innovation ecosystem' project as the start of an ongoing effort with Deloitte to generate the kind of creative solutions that are needed now and into the future."

The collaboration includes a commitment from Deloitte's life science practice, which started working with QB3 in December 2010 to assess how California compares to other states in fostering bioscience innovation. Deloitte will continue to contribute its organizational experience in the life sciences to offer perspectives on operations and business models from other states, as well as insights on collaborations and federal policy. This, in turn, will help QB3 in its efforts to generate new approaches to working within the rapidly changing biotech industry.

"Our collaboration with QB3 is one of the largest life science initiatives and investments for Deloitte's life sciences practice," said Christie Smith, PhD, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and Northern Pacific sector leader for life sciences. "This opportunity allows Deloitte to bring its capabilities in audit, tax, financial advisory services and consulting to aid QB3 in achieving its mission."

The services will include strategic analysis and planning, as well as project management, to extend QB3's relationships with government, universities, investors and bioscience companies in an effort to both motivate investments in innovation and help move ideas from lab to market more quickly. It also will include third-party feedback on QB3's impact and success over the last decade in creating jobs, supporting entrepreneurs and growing California's bioeconomy.

The team's deliberate focus on the four stakeholder communities is what makes this initiative so unusual, Kelly said, but also could be the root of its success in helping to "unclog the pipeline" that leads from scientific discoveries to real-world benefits for patients.

It represents a challenge, as well, in fostering a united mission among large and small companies, sophisticated investors, top-ranked researchers and entrepreneurs, according to Matthew K. Hudes, Deloitte's U.S. leader for biotechnology.

"The problems in life sciences cannot be solved without the key players working together, not only from the private and public sector, but also from university researchers who are the starting point for innovative breakthroughs," Hudes said. "Our goal is to develop a model for an innovation ecosystem that enables those breakthroughs to improve human health worldwide."

In a separate initiative, Deloitte and QB3 will launch a program of bioscience industry awards and speaker forums to recognize scientific innovators and entrepreneurs, and provide a platform for networking and learning.

QB3 is a cooperative effort among private industry and more than 200 scientists at UCSF, UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz. One of four technology institutes, created in 2000 by former California Governor Gray Davis, with the mission of supporting science, driving the California economy and transforming scientific research into public good, QB3 harnesses the quantitative tools and approaches of physics, chemistry, and engineering to integrate and enhance scientific understanding of biological systems at all levels, enabling scientists to tackle problems that have been previously unapproachable. Please visit www.qb3.org.

As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.