What Is it Like to Work for A Biotech Company?

Q: What do you do and how did you get this job?

Torma: I direct the technology development arm of the Biomedical Research Foundation (www.biomed.org), a not-for-profit foundation that is unusual in that it is not heavily endowed by university monies or owned by a university. We are on the LSU-Shreveport campus, but we are independent. However, LSU is our number one customer and supplier. I wear two hats for the Foundation--Vice President for Technology Development and Director of its Center for Biomedical Technology Innovation.

The Foundation's mission is to foster medical advances, giving Northwest Louisiana a presence in the biotech world, and to ensure economic development, specifically in Shreveport-Bossier. In the 80s, we recognized that most basic science advances would be incremental pieces of knowledge, only rarely leading to major breakthroughs, although one or two of them would ultimately have a huge impact.

So we began in the mid-90s to look for near-term clinical devices and other deliverables that could be brought to the bedside and commercialized relatively quickly. This approach, coupled with an assessment of local talents and interests, resulted in a focus on economic development within business clusters for medical informatics, bio-genetics, photonics, energy, and orthopedics--all championed by the Center for Biomedical Technology Innovation.

Q: What are some examples of projects the Foundation has been involved in?

Torma: We created a website (www.scibermed.org) for the Scibermed Virtual Institute to advance minimally invasive surgery. The site has won two Smithsonian awards as among the best in the world. Within our orthopedics cluster, we are developing a prototype for a new type of knee surface for knee implant/replacement. We worked with local clinicians and engineers to bring the product along. We are also fabricating a micro-robotic laparoscopic instrument.

As you might expect, a major source of ideas is academia. But more often, the ideas come from community practitioners. The Foundation fosters alliances with academia and community proceduralists, whether they are surgeons, interventional radiologists, cardiologists, gastroenterologists, or others.

The Center's role is to help clients move from concept to prototype to product. We provide the technology transfers that a good business model would include--an incubator function, access to venture capital and management, a Rolodex for different engineering applications, and even entree to the national laboratories. That is the value that we bring to the equation. In return for helping to develop the product, we hope that the company will consider residing here and strengthening the local economy.

Even though 99 percent of what we do is to help entrepreneurs and inventors with their ideas, 1 percent is an internal work product where we develop devices or technologies that interest us. We spin off companies from our projects or from the intellectual property that we acquire. We are most interested in the early stages of development, so we are less risk adverse than some angel and venture capitalists, although we do carefully screen for commercial potential. We are willing to take chances that many funding groups would not, for the sake of a company commitment to InterTech, our development park.

We have started three companies--one didn't make it, but the others look like they are going to be gangbusters. I'm managing 12 projects. Our portfolio includes 140 intellectual properties that have come under management in four years. We are making decent progress in the relatively short time we've been at it.

Q. How did a physician get involved in this sort of entrepreneurial venture?

Torma: I was in the military for many years, did research in the clinical arena, and was in charge of surgery residency training programs. I was also peripherally involved in the man/machine research going on in Air Force laboratories that had some black box activities--secret defense initiatives, new materials or technologies that weren't obvious to the commercial world just yet. I had management experience from my military days and management mentoring from the American College of Physician Executives. I gained governance experience in the private sector before joining the Foundation. The sum of those activities, I suppose, made me an attractive candidate.

And yet I actually got the job by serendipity. I was Chief of Surgical Services at Presbyterian in Dallas and had a vision for an Institute for Surgical Sciences that would be funded largely by the work that the clinicians were doing. The Institute for Surgical Sciences did happen, but it was moving at a slow pace.

I was one of 150 physicians invited to attend a think tank session at Sandia National Laboratories on health care initiatives involving high tech applications. Sandia Lab's Chief of Health Care Initiatives, a Louisiana native, asked, "How are things going at Presbyterian?" "They are going very well," I said, "but I have one frustration. I have not been able to get the Institute for Surgical Sciences off the ground with the muscle that I'd hoped it would have." He said, "You know, there is a guy in Shreveport named Jack Sharp that you have to meet. He has formed a new Foundation. They have some federal monies, primarily from the Department of Energy, for development purposes and he is looking for someone to run this center."

He facilitated a meeting. Jack came to Presbyterian. At the time, I was involved in asynchronous transfer mode telemedicine work and some "OR of the future" robotics. The Institute was off the ground enough that we had a few projects to show him. And we were developing the OR of the future in a competitive health care system. All of that impressed him enough to offer me the job.

Chance favors the prepared mind. I had worked to advance minimally invasive surgery, trained surgeons, and developed management skills. At the right moment, all these things came together. A boyhood dream was suddenly available to me. It has been the most exciting four years of my life.

Barbara J. Linney, MA, is the Director of Professional Development at the American College of Physician Executives in Tampa, Florida and a member of its faculty.

KEY CONCEPTS

* Working for a Biotech Company

* Career Opportunities for Physician Executive

* Making a Career Transition

* Skills and Background Helpful in the Biotech World

Is working for a biotech company a career option you've thought about pursuing? In this column, Barbara Linney interviews physician executive Michael J. Torma, MD, FACPE, about his experience working for a biotech company. He discusses how he became Vice President for Technology Development for the Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana in Shreveport. He describes his background and how it made him an attractive candidate for the position, the nature of the work, and some of the projects that he has been involved in.