The Emory Institute for Drug Development offers the Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program to prepare the next generation of life science leaders in emerging economies. Through partnerships with local governments, academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies, this international program delivers multiple educational modules to bioscience entrepreneurs, students and government leaders. These modules include workshops, executive education, a scholars program and a heralded business plan competition. All modules are designed to teach participants the skills necessary to successfully address unmet needs in their home country or region.

An urgent need has long existed for this education, which helps to create new avenues for drug discovery and technology solutions, particularly for therapeutic treatments related to commercially-neglected diseases. Due to financial considerations, many pharmaceutical companies are largely focused on developing highly profitable treatments which do not typically address the world’s most critical diseases. As a result, there is a significant, unmet medical need for treatments of low-profit, commercially-neglected diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV, and malaria.  The program is helping to meet these needs through its education programs, reaching high potential scientists and entrepreneurs, and by catalyzing the advancement of new commercial ventures in the developing world.

The program has been uniquely successful in its efforts to-date, leading effective workshops, executive education sessions and business plan competitions. Doctoral and post doctoral candidates have also greatly benefitted from our Scholars Program. Looking forward, the institute plans to grow its educational programs even more – expanding to emerging economies throughout the world where unmet healthcare challenges wait to be addressed. To accomplish that goal, the program is seeking new partnerships:  like-minded organizations who share a similar vision of developing new medical treatments for, and new commercial ventures in, the emerging economies. These partnerships can bring together leading talent to solve the toughest issues, and we believe they are critical to achieving our mission.