The SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research Program) funding program is in jeopardy of not being renewed. From GenomeWeb Daily News:
The Federal funding program that supports small businesses that pursue innovations in biomedical and other high tech fields is in need of an overhaul, according to some industry representatives, and is set to dry up later this year if the US Congress does not agree to extend it.
In an effort to press lawmakers to do something about the Small Business Innovation Research program, industry representatives held a sort of a cheering session this week on Capitol Hill that touted the value of the program to biomedical research.
One of the “cheerleaders” is Belmont alum Dr. Jim Stefansic, CTO of Pathfinder Therapeutics, Inc. (PTI). Here is part of his testimony before Congress:
Although PTI has overcome much of the technology and regulatory risk associated with bringing a new medical device to market, many other challenges remain to ensure that our technology can improve the lives of those suffering from abdominal cancer. It is important to note that these risks would not have been conquered without both the SBIR grants and the modest seed round investment in PTI. Both of these funding sources are described in more detail below.
Given that the expertise of the founders in successfully acquiring academic federal grant funding, we were encouraged by our seed round investors in the summer of 2004 to raise additional early-stage funds through the SBIR mechanism. With teamwork and considerable effort from all the founders, in early 2005 PTI was fortunate to land on our first attempt a fasttrack SBIR grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to develop a commercial software and hardware platform for a variety of image-guided therapeutic applications that target cancer. As the principal investigator on this grant, I have been able to focus part of my time and energy on taking the technology from the founders in the academic setting to commercialization without being concerned about salary support and other R&D resources for my engineering staff. The $1.5MM in grant funds have been primarily used to develop the SurgiSight image-guided therapy platform and will enable PTI to grow from one specific therapeutic area (liver surgery) to the broader field of surgical oncology (kidney and colorectal) to the broadest field of general surgery (vascular/soft tissue applications throughout the body). The key to unlocking this potential is the stability and versatility of our software platform and its ability to seamlessly interact with multiple hardware configurations. This versatility will enable Pathfinder to release products that are amenable to applications that employ either an open or minimally invasive surgical approach.
Jim knows that I am not a big fan of programs like SBIR. I do not believe that it is the role of government to steer entrepreneurial activity and fund businesses. That being said, we are very proud of Jim and we are glad that he was able to leverage this funding to start what we know will be a great business.
As long as this program remains available, we need to do a better job in Tennessee of securing these funds for start-up companies. Tennessee ranked 50th out of the 50 US states in 2007 in submission for, and reception of, SBIR/STTR grants. Tennessee Technology Development Corporation in conjunction with UT is working to change that. They will be holding a series of educational seminars in West, Middle and East Tennessee over the next few weeks to improve this situation. They are partnering with local like-minded agencies. Innova will be sponsoring the seminar in Memphis. For more info, check out the TTDC site.