{"id":155119,"date":"2016-06-01T10:39:25","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T07:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/bayer-opening-the-door-to-new-ideas-2\/"},"modified":"2024-03-13T11:11:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T09:11:00","slug":"bayer-opening-the-door-to-new-ideas-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/bayer-opening-the-door-to-new-ideas-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Bayer: Opening the door to new ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"

The biotech company Bayer has adopted a new approach to R&D, opening its doors to new start-ups and researchers with innovative ideas. This inspiring success story of an Estonian start-up will hopefully encourage others to put forward their ideas.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pharmaceutical companies are generally viewed as rather conservative. Eike Kingsepp, Corporate Communication Manager for Baltic countries, assures, however, that pharma has kept pace with changes brought about by the digital age. \u201cToday the bulk of pharmaceutical research is done by computers and digital simulation. This side of our work remains largely hidden from the public. It is in new drug development that innovation makes the biggest difference. Today we can say that we have found the areas with the highest development potential,\u201d says Kingsepp.<\/p>\n

The global biotech group has become more open-minded and is taking every opportunity to tap into new ideas and innovative thinking. \u201cAt the global level, Bayer has launched several initiatives and competitions aiming to get young start-ups off the ground. The competitions, which started off in Europe, have by now become surprisingly popular all over the world. This makes us more accessible for start-ups. Our initiatives open up opportunities for people and companies who would otherwise be kept out of the industry by the strict regulatory criteria,\u201d says Kingsepp.<\/p>\n

Medikeep: a success story backed by Bayer<\/h3>\n

The Estonia-based Medikeep is a good example of how a digital health start-up who received support and funding from Bayer is all set to conquer the world. Kingsepp explains that Medikeep has developed \u2018a pharmacy in your pocket\u2019 \u2013 a medication management app that allows people to keep track of medication taking by themselves and their family members. The app also helps users keep an inventory of the contents of their home medicine cabinets. \u201cThe founders of Medikeep participated in the competition last year and were one of the five companies selected for the Bayer accelerator programme. They spent three intensive months at Bayer offices in Berlin where they received mentoring by Bayer experts and worked mainly on backing up their product with a variety of activities from effective presentation to business plan development. In March they should release a new version of their product with which they hope to reach the global market,\u201d says Kingsepp.<\/p>\n

She explains that while the manufacturing process of pharmaceutical drugs is strictly regulated and supervised, not much is known about what happens after the patient leaves the pharmacy with the medication. \u201cSurveys have shown that medication non-adherence and lack of control over whether regimens are followed as due are common problems. Non-adherence to antibiotic treatment is a particularly important issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is important to understand why patients stop taking their medications: is it because of side effects (side effects are currently not included in the Medikeep app but might be in the future), do patients simply forget to take them (the app offers a reminder feature) or do patients just feel they have to take too many medications and decide to change the dosage themselves. The whole field of medication compliance needs support and Medikeep has taken a step towards providing it,\u201d says Kingsepp.<\/p>\n

She underlines the continuing importance of patient empowerment: \u201cMedikeep is not just another calendar but a mobile app capable of influencing the patients\u2019 behaviour. The patients should be able to share the information with the doctor, which may bring about a change in the patient\u2019s behaviour. Sending information from the app or the device to the doctors should become easier: in case of a blood pressure monitor, for example, performing the measurement is not enough if the patient does not know how to set the monitor up for use or if there is no communication link with the doctor. Home diagnostics is a fast-developing field and we need to ask how all the information should be organised and who will analyse it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Start-ups and global corporations share the same goals<\/h3>\n

Kingsepp recalls an interview by Medikeep founder and manager Kerti Alev where she compared a small start-up to a punk band and a corporation to a large orchestra \u2013 at the end of the day, they both make music. \u201cThey have so many interfaces that we should focus on our common goals rather than differences. The pharmaceutical industry has an image \u2013 NEMCaps partially deserved \u2013 of a rather closed and detached sector. We should be more open as we need the information and knowledge from outside and we also wish to show that we are not an enclosed microcosm living a life of its own. We are part of the society and our products are designed to help people,\u201d says Kingsepp, comparing small and large enterprises.<\/p>\n

This new way of thinking has led to the launch of several funding programmes by Bayer. Grants4Apps \u2013 the programme in which Medikeep participated \u2013 is a global funding initiative. The other four winning projects came from the US, Germany, Canada and China. \u201cA new round of the programme is now open for submissions and we encourage all health technology start-ups to participate. We hope to see also other healthcare solutions besides mobile apps, such as medical devices,\u201d says Kingsepp.<\/p>\n

The Grants4Indication programme focuses on drug development. \u201cGrants are offered to young scientists with ideas for new indications using Bayer compounds. Today 85% of new drugs come from established pharmaceutical companies, a small share from universities and even a smaller share from other sources. We would like to see a change here and new ideas coming in from outside the established pharma industry. Bayer wishes to be more accessible and to open R&D doors for those who might otherwise get lost in the overly bureaucratic system. Patient safety of course remains a key concern \u2013 it is with good reason that the pharmaceutical industry is heavily regulated and with high entry barriers,\u201d says Kingsepp.<\/p>\n

Looking into the future, Bayer intends
\nto increase its presence in Estonia, participate more in the society and contribute more significantly to the healthcare system. \u201cAs a small country open to change, we can test new technologies and then share our lessons with others \u2013 what needs to be changed and how could our mistakes be avoided,\u201d says Kingsepp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The biotech company Bayer has adopted a new approach to R&D, opening its doors to new start-ups and researchers with innovative ideas. This inspiring success story of an Estonian start-up will hopefully encourage others to put forward their ideas. Pharmaceutical companies are generally viewed as rather conservative. Eike Kingsepp, Corporate Communication Manager for Baltic countries, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":155055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-success-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155400,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155119\/revisions\/155400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}