The majority of innovative ideas in life science never reach the patient, often due to lack of direction and expertise that the innovator can access to bring a brilliant idea from bench to bedside. To address this gap, Novo Nordisk Bio Innovation Hub (BIH) conceived the Co-creation Greenhouse.
The Co-Creation Greenhouse is a collaboration model and is based on three simple principles:
- Fast triggered: It only requires a simple CDA to get started
- Customized: Together, we select the elements needed, across the entire Novo Nordisk biopharmaceutical value chain, to progress the idea
- No strings attached: Your idea remains yours! We assist in its advancement while assessing its potential
The Co-Creation Greenhouse is an intensive support accelerator that we provide to an innovative idea or concept. During this common journey, we touch on three different stages:
1. Initiation: A Design Sprint-like workshop is set up between the innovator team and Novo Nordisk’s Bio Innovation Hub. The ambition is to rapidly identify the most relevant focus points and killer questions and lay out a research plan to address these. Other relevant scientific profiles from Novo Nordisk will be included with a fit-for-purpose rationale. Emphasis will also be placed on the identification of the expertise areas and/or deliverables Novo Nordisk could provide in support of the research plan.
2. Co-creation Accelerator: During a period of up to 6 months the innovator team will lead the planned research activities in close interaction with the Bio Innovation Hub. The agreed support and sparring with the Novo Nordisk core organization is then deployed. The support options are very broad and go beyond the boundaries of R&D. In principle, there is no limit as to the nature of the expert support we can provide. The overarching aim is to enable the achievement of the research plan milestones. For example, support provided can include some of the following:
a. Disease-specific expertise from our core therapy areas
b. Technology sparring (e.g., chemistry, recombinant technologies, assay development, device design, prototype construction)
c. In-kind support (e.g., custom peptides, proteins, assays, biosamples, in vitro/vivo studies, analysis and characterization, prototype manufacturing)
d. Pre-clinical development knowledge sharing
e. Mentoring beyond early R&D stages (e.g., CMC, clinical trial design, regulatory affairs, new product planning)
f. Support in CRO selection
Moreover, the Co-creation Greenhouse is sponsored with a 50.000 USD grant to help cover running costs.
3. Evaluation and Feedback: Once the experimental part is concluded, the innovator team is invited to provide a final presentation on the results and learnings achieved to a selected expert panel at Novo Nordisk, which includes senior management figures. This will open to a short internal evaluation to decide whether to offer a more committed engagement with Novo Nordisk for further maturation of the idea/asset.
The innovator will remain the sole owner of the results generated throughout the Co-creation Greenhouse and these can therefore be used e.g. to generate IP, to any future interaction with external parties or to be made available publicly through scientific publications and scientific presentations.