Program on Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Biomedical Product Development (EI4BPD)

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Abstract/Summary The U.S. is currently facing a drug addiction (DA) epidemic while there is a dearth of innovative technologies for preventing, diagnosing and treating DA and substance use disorders (SUDs). The program on Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Biomedical Product Development (EI4BPD) aims to advance the inception and development of products and services to develop, scale, and deliver effective prevention, diagnostic and treatment solutions for substance use disorders by training life science researchers in entrepreneurship, innovation, biomedical product development and commercialization. Specifically, this program will: 1) Combine the expertise of entrepreneurship, innovation, DA, and education scholars toward a customized and unified curriculum in entrepreneurship, early- stage biomedical technology commercialization and biomedical product development. 2) Recruit 4 consecutive yearly cohorts of 15 fellows, who are U.S. scientists working in the fields of SUDs research, to receive, free of charge the training on how to foster the development of early-stage biomedical technologies and how to advance their technologies from the research and academic laboratory into the commercial world. The selection will occur through a highly competitive process. 3) Implement the developed curriculum as an educational program consisting of tailored online (live and self-paced) and in-person educational activities driven by coaches from academia, government and industry. 4) Create a Community of Peers for all SUDs researchers and industry experts to provide program sustainability and a space for ideas’ cross-pollination. The educational program will consist of a kickoff event to promote community building and set the program’s goals. It will be followed by two online courses on innovation and entrepreneurship covering user understanding and technology evaluation. The courses will be complemented by tailored live webinars and online support activities. Finally, the program will be concluded with an in-person hands-on bootcamp on entrepreneurship and innovation for biomedical product development facilitated by practicing biomedical entrepreneur and pharmacotherapy coaches. Each new cohort will be supported by a variety of industry experts, speakers and coaches that will be part of a Community of Peers, which will grow every year to keep all alumni connected to support future biomedical product development efforts.