Cogentum client Acrux today announced one of the biggest licensing  deals in Australian Biotech history. The deal with Eli Lilly ranks up there as one of the biggest outcomes for an Australian biotech. From the announcements you will see that this is a superb result for any Australian company seeking to license it’s technology.

Cogentum worked closely with Acrux through the Axiron development stage to validate the market potential of the technology and gain a cogent understanding of its likely  acceptance and adoption by US based physicians and patients.  Ensuring that the company had sound and objective evidence to support the  proposition that Axiron was an attractive and compelling product formed  a critical part of building the case to investors, regulators and of course, potential licensees. As Acrux CEO Dr Richard Treagus commented previously about the work undertaken by Cogentum, “Your results have elevated our negotiating position exponentially.”

Cogentum would like to congratulate the entire Acrux team, led by Dr Richard Treagus on the seamless execution of a breakthrough strategy that sets a new benchmark for Australian biotech.

We strongly believe that Acrux shows a  clear way forward for Australian Biotech companies seeking to commercialise their technology. The value of a rational market orientated approach that validates the market need and creates  strong alignment between the need and the clinical and business development activities is now clear –   outstanding results for investors.  We are thrilled for both the entire Acrux team and their investors as this is just reward for their focus, patience and diligence.

Below is an article from Business Spectator which I have linked to and also taken the liberty of reprinting in full because I believe it is extraordinarily important and reflective of both the opportunity climate change presents business and also indicative of why the gold rush 2.0 is well underway.

Google’s search for smart power
February 24, 2010
Giles Parkinson

Most people expect there to be a transformation of the energy industry, but what if it turns out to be a total revolution?

Most talk focuses on a possible move to distributed rather than centralised power supplies, the introduction of smart grids and the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy supplies such as wind, solar, marine and geothermal.

In other words, the structure of the industry pretty much remains the same, except for a few whiz-bang technologies that make it greener, more efficient and more available.

But what if it went further than that, and the whole industry was turned upside down? Two developments in the past few days in the US give a hint of what is being envisaged and what might be possible - the entry of Google into the energy utility business and the much-hyped release of the stand-alone fuel cell, the Bloom Box.

Solar

Last Friday, Google was granted a licence to operate as a utility by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, joining other companies with massive warehouse complexes and large energy needs such as retailing giants Wal-Mart and Safeway, consumer goods company Kimberley Clark and pharmaceutical group Merck. The idea is that they will use the massive land and roof areas to establish solar arrays or other energy source to meet some of their own energy needs. The utility status means that if they generate excess energy, they can sell it to other customers.

What makes Google different is that is has long been a vocal advocate of renewable energy, calling for the US grid to be 100 per cent renewable by 2030, and has backed this talk with significant investments in leading solar companies eSolar and Brightsource, creating one of the largest solar arrays in the US, funding two US geothermal developers, and also investing heavily in Makani Power, a company developing high altitude kites to develop wind energy.

Google’s ‘green energy czar’ Bill Weih says the company is developing its own technology to increase the efficiency of solar thermal energy. The company believes it could also make wind a cheaper source of energy than coal.

Additionally, the company is investing heavily in energy efficiency, pumping cash into a smart grid specialist called Silver Spring Networks and launching its own ‘Powermeter’ real time energy reporting technology.

This is where it starts to get interesting. If Google were to combine its own energy sources, energy efficiency technology, software monitoring and massive data centres there would be huge scope to help manage power consumption for large buildings, industrial sites and other major consumers.

The possibilities are myriad. Either Google constructs a system that helps customers save large amounts of energy, and shares in the savings, or delivers a data management contract and throws in the energy use for free or at a hugely discounted price. As industry specialist Grentech Media suggested the other day, Google could undercut search engine rivals by providing a suite of services including energy supply.

Bloom Box

One of the technologies that Google has also been testing in the last 18 months, along with eBay and logistics group FedEx, is the Bloom Box, a stand alone fuel source not unlike the BlueGen unit developed by Australia’s Ceramic Fuel Cells.

What supposedly distinguishes the Bloom Box from BlueGen and dozens of other fuel cell technologies being developed across the globe is its scalability and its cost. The basic premise of the technology is that it would allow many communities to simply do away with utilities and power grids.

The Bloom is being unveiled this week in the US in a carefully orchestrated media campaign that started with exclusive interviews with Bloom founder K.R. Sridhar on the high profile US 60 Minutes program and in Fortune magazine, and will continue with a major media launch scheduled for Thursday morning Australian time.

The Bloom, it seems, came from an idea developed in planning for the US Mars Mission, when Sridhar developed a device that would create oxygen and water on the planet. When that mission was ditched by NASA, Sridhar decided to reverse the process and use oxygen and another fuel to create energy. As stories go, that’s about as good as it gets.

The Bloom Boxes to be unveiled this week are said to cost around $800,000 a unit. Four of them have been used to power a Google data centre for the past 18 months and eBay is reported to have saved $100,000 in energy costs in a single year from using three units.

Sridhar told 60 Minutes and Fortune this week that he hoped to release a household-sized device that costs around $3000 within a few years. That remains to be seen, and so far we don’t know much about the costs and what sort of fuel can be used as an input.

Eight years of development, some $US400 million of investments and some very big reputations depend on its success. It was Kleiner Perkins’ first investment in greentech after the dot.com boom and bust, and the company is said to be counting on Bloom to deliver its first major cleantech winner. So an IPO can’t be far away.

You can find out more about the Bloom Box on the Fast Company where they have a couple of articles on the Bloom Box Specs and a bit of a backstory.

Grab a shovel, ’cause here comes the Gold Rush!

A gold rush has started. One of the biggest, if not the biggest race in human history.

We are talking about a mad grab for the fortunes that will define the next 100 or possibly 300 years. This is dynastic in implication, geopolitical in nature and paradigm shifting in impact. Individuals and companies will make fortunes that will make the money made by the Rockefellers, the Getty’s and the Emir’s of the Gulf seem like a pittance.

You must have heard about this? Surely?

Just as hundreds of thousands of people flocked to the gold diggings in California and Australia in the 19th centuries, so too will millions move location in order to participate in this generational craze for wealth.

You, I, your business, those around you could all be part of it? Surely you know what I’m talking about?

The greatest gold rush in history is called climate change.

The people and businesses that work out a way of responding to climate change will make a fortune. They will be the one’s who crack the sustainable energy problem. They will be ones who can get more energy from  limited resources. They will be the ones who can reduce an individuals energy bill by 90% but take a 50% charge to do so. They will be the ones who will harness existing and new technologies to change the way we move, the way we eat the way we manufacture the things we need in our lives. And they will be the ones who will make a fortune. Why? Because we want what they’ve got. A new, exciting and sustainable way forward.

This isn’t a pipe dream, it’s already well under way. As previously discussed the Chinese are leading the way.

The question you need to ask yourself about climate change is not why the Government isn’t doing anything about it, but why the hell you aren’t doing something to make a fortune by dealing with it.

The simple truth is this: the only way of making a significant change at a social and economic level is by harnessing that greatest of human motivators - Personal benefit and the desire for money.

There is money to be made from climate change, or to put it a more palatable way. You can make a fortune by saving the world.

I attended a fascinating lunch today on what the climate change world will look like post Copenhagen.

The top line summary was that while it would be nice to think a solution will be politically led, the reality is that it simply won’t be. It will be up to local communities, business and individuals to drive change.

Despite this, the themes that seemed to emerge in the question and answer session that followed coalesced around two alternatives, both strangely being political.

1. One was what I will term the ‘China Solution’. Suddenly a dictatorship capable of making autocratic decisions for the common good is seen as being superior than Western Democracy. Why? Because according to some present today  ‘democracy is incapable of responding’. Wow. What fascinates us is that the underlying assumption here is that climate change still requires a political response. From where we sit, it would seem strange that people don’t expect a political solution but still expect their leaders to provide one. In Australia the current  ’insulation policy’ disaster only proves how incapable Government, of any political side, is of driving any major change.
2. The second issue was Communication. It was proposed that people don’t act on climate change because they don’t understand what it means. So what is required is further education of the masses. However, the irony of these comments is that the climate change issue and debate has already developed its own lexicon of jargon and complexity. It appeared that those involved in the debate, rather than attempting to clarify what is a complex science, often only seek to demonstrate their mastery of the jargon at the expense of clarity and cogent argument. The simple fact is that jargon alienates people. The vast majority of Australians are (sadly) more familiar with the language of the “Biggest Loser” and “Idol” that the language used by the protagonists in the Climate Change debate.

So here’s my take for consideration about how to get business more engaged with this issue.

Climate change will not be affected by the UN, politics, policy statements, conferences, conventions, treaties and protocols. Because at the end of the day climate change is not about any of these things.
Climate change is all about one thing, and one thing only. Money.

The Chinese know this and have been taking a long term ‘monopolistic’ view on this and have now amassed stakes in rare earth metals, solar technologies, wind, etc. You can check out a great article in the New York Times that illustrates exactly what this means for the West. So just as the American and Brits tied up the petroleum industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, so to ‘China Inc.’ is taking a big position in the next ‘energy’ revolution.

Why? Because it’s a sure fire way to make money.

So what should business do in response to climate change? Make money.

Have you ever wondered how easy it would be if you could pay with your credit card anywhere, at any time?

Hmmm, nice idea, but the problem has always been a lack of terminals. After all, not many garage sales have their own EFTPOS terminal, right?

WRONG! Silicon Valley based start up firm Square have busted this right open with their breathtakingly simply payment system that, wait for it, plugs into your IPHONE!!!!!

Check it out at http://ow.ly/16vSF

We think this is possibly one of the most disruptive pieces of technology we have seen for some time. This has the potential to change the way we transact right across the economy.

Nice!

When I am really sick, I see a Doctor. Why? Because they are trained to assess the symptoms/data/evidence I present with. In essence I trust that they know what they are doing.

This trust is based on my understanding that through a unique and powerful combination of training, education and experience they are able to assess the data and from this make an informed diagnosis and recommend a treatment.

What’s my role in all of this? Well it’s not to think I am a better Doctor.

My role is to take this information and decide whether or not I wish to act on this. Do I take the treatment, get a second opinion, ignore it and carry on?

The rational response to this is to ask, what was the diagnosis and the treatment my Doctor is recommending. If it’s a  potentially fatal condition  - like Cancer, Ebola, Bird Flu, etc. and i need to take a radical treatment I need to consider carefully my responses.

Once again the rational decision is to follow a course of action that reduces the risk to  my health and well being. ie. seek a second opinion, gather more data and/or seek a variation as to the treatment options. But certainly I should act on it.

What is certainly not a rational response is to ignore it, or deny the diagnosis because I don’t believe it.

While denial is not a rational response, it is not uncommon. It also is an important part of a grief cycle - as described by Kubler Ross

Given the amazing and bizarre stuff going on in the Australian Parliament this week - one wonders whether or not we are observing this process?

Interestingly, in our work with companies, we often see a similar scenario when it comes to killing a project, or recognising the end of what was once a great strategy or opportunity.

What always helps is re-establishing a  common language built around the data - in our case - data on what customers are demanding. In the case of climate change - data from the latest readings

For those of you who are interested in digging down to the base information - we would recommend an interesting report that was just released looking at the data from an independent - non politicised - perspective.

http://www.copenhagendiagnosis.org/default.html

Referring back to the data allows a new perspective to be formed and a more rational approach to be considered.

In highly emotive situations this can provide you with right input into a decision making process  that may well be the difference between your business, product or technology surviving and prospering or dying an untimely death.

One of the leading academics and authors on Business and Management Dr Henry Minztberg has written a thought provoking piece in the MIT Sloan Management Review on whether the executive bonus schemes should stay or be scrapped.

Mintzberg says, “Executive bonuses—especially in the form of stock and option grants—represent the most prominent form of legal corruption that has been undermining our large corporations and bringing down the global economy. Get rid of them and we will all be better off for it.”

It’s a controversial perspective and one that would no doubt be greeted with a lack of enthusiasm in some quarters, however, it also raises some intriguing questions about the ‘role’ of the CEO and management team in a modern organisation.

In the world of innovation, growth and corporate and cultural change it is often said, “show me the remuneration structure and I’ll show you the culture”. Maybe what have just experienced with the Global Financial Crisis is a classic example of this.

Worth having a read.

For the last 8 months we have been working with Neopec, a new company that is commercialising a revolutionary approach to breast reconstruction using technology developed at Melbourne, Australia’s Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery and the Australian Tissue Engineering Center.

Neopec will allow women who have been through the trauma of breast cancer and mastectomy to re-grow their breast tissue naturally and permanently, without the need for silicon or saline implants and the long term problems they cause.

Cogentum has been responsible for the development of the Business strategy and innovation/commercialisation pathway for this vital and revolutionary technology and is continuing to play an interim business management role in the consortium. The Project has allowed us to demonstrate once again the value of our market orientated approach to innovation, growth strategy and commercialization. The insights gathered during the research phase of the strategy development (conducted with both women who have had reconstructive surgery and the plastic surgeons who help them) has provided very compelling evidence as to the clear unmet need in this growing medical arena.

We are really pleased this work has also now been recognised by the Victorian State government  via a $2.9m grant from the Science Agenda Fund being awarded to the Neopec consortium to fast track the project over the next 3 years. Cogentum will continue to partner with Neopec through to commercialistion.

http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/component/content/article/8575.html

It’s also pleasing that the Neopec project is now getting some great media coverage as well!

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/regrowth-a-godsend-for-women-who-have-lost-their-breasts/story-e6frf7jo-1225796692477

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/lifestyle/breast-regrowth-hope-for-cancer-victims/story-e6frf00i-1225796692835

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/melbourne-scientists-poised-to-begin-surgery-to-help-cancer-victims-regrow-breasts/story-e6frf7jo-1225796683801

It is truly an amazing piece of technology and the progress being made is indicative of the value Cogentum brings to clients seeking to drive growth, innovation and commercialisation in any industry.

For more information about the Neopec project or any other issues concerning innovation, growth and commercialization, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Great news is continuing to emerge from the Australian biotech sctor.

We are glad to see that one of our clients, Acrux, is leading the charge as it continues to build a cogent story for its investors and the market.

Equally pleasing is the rapid progress of Universal Biosensors (sadly, not a client!). This company is, in our opinion, the pin up of what innovation can mean - in any industry, in any country.

The clear line of sight that UBI’s management have developed between the value they create for the customer and the application of capital is world leading. The way innovation has been built into the business and ensures that all value is captured is not only remarkable but inspiring for all those seeking to drive innovation within their organisations.

This is a big rap, however, when you come across a firm that has actually managed to capture what innovation is ‘meant to be about’ and put it into cogent strategy that delivers strong returns, it really stands out.