CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IDEA Pharma, the path-to-market design practice, and Mass Innovation Labs, an accelerated chemistry and biology commercialization space in the heart of Kendall Square in Cambridge, Mass., today announced their new collaboration that provides a creative environment and program to cultivate solutions for challenges facing life science companies. The venture is entitled SkunkWeeks, a program aimed at revolutionizing the way pharma/biotech companies turn problems into solutions in just a matter of days through intensive workshops.
The first SkunkWeeks, which was held in September, included two leading global pharmaceuticals companies. They tackled some of the biggest challenges the industry is facing to find workable solutions that will benefit both companies and patients.
“We are excited about partnering with IDEA Pharma to help guide companies into more effective entrepreneurship,” said Seth Taylor, CFO and CBO of Mass Innovation Labs. “SkunkWeeks embraces the core values of Mass Innovation Labs as a platform for enabling innovators to thrive and succeed. We believe the achievements we have seen with our member companies show on a large scale the kind of revolutionary thinking that SkunkWeeks will inspire. The ecosystem we have created at Mass Innovation Labs is built around imagining what the future can look like.”
“The opportunity is to recognize that solutions and ideas simply cannot come from inside any more, and that collaboration is about more than just changing the furniture,” said Mike Rea, CEO of IDEA Pharma. “IDEA Pharma can bring directed ideation; Mass Innovation Labs can bring their expertise in incubating aligned novel technologies, and our clients can bring their innovative thinkers and difficult challenges to a white hot core of potential solutions in the heart of Kendall Square.”
SkunkWeeks is a play on the term skunkworks, which describes when small technology/R&D project teams are taken out of their normal working environments to spur creativity and innovation. Mass Innovation Labs will host the workshops that can range anywhere from one to four days in their cutting-edge facilities. Multi-disciplinary teams define problems and engage with an invited guest list of incubator companies, tech/IT, VC, business professionals and other innovators for ideation and new ways of looking at their challenges. In addition, teams conduct rapid pilot/solution prototyping and pitch their plans and ideas to invited senior management teams.
“The difference to doing this type of event in-house is that our partner, Mass Innovation Labs, can provide a non-corporate environment coupled with tried and tested ideators and innovators to facilitate and inspire,” said Jeremy Stafford, chairman of IDEA Pharma.
Mass Innovation Labs and IDEA Pharma are holding their second SkunkWeeks event at the end of November, after the resounding success of the first event.
For more information, or to have a representative from SkunkWeeks come and listen to you about a problem you need to solve, please contact info@ideapharma.com or info@massinnovationlabs.com.
About IDEA Pharma:
IDEA Pharma is a path-to-market design practice, applying design thinking to pharmaceutical strategy. IDEA positioned 3 of the 10 products Reuters labeled ‘Blockbuster Launches in 2015,' as well as strategy for over 50% of the 50 fastest-growing drugs in 2010-2015, and one in three of the fastest-growing drugs in 2014. More information at ideapharma.com.
About Mass Innovation Labs:
Mass Innovation Labs embodies an ecosystem of innovators in its 124,000 square foot first-class chemistry and biology space in the heart of Kendall Square. We provide comprehensive solutions for growing companies, including animal facilities, co-located CRO services and operational needs. Our goal is to reduce the time for teams to overcome hurdles in achieving milestones. Our space offers a collaborative ecosystem that allows a company to run as a lean organization and focus on the science with expert drug development partners down the hall. For more information, please visit our website or join us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
