Chemistry World article on Xerion Healthcare

How do healthcare products get from academic or start-up labs to the clinic? With a little help from places like the Centre for Process Innovation…

The pioneering first moments in scientific discovery can enlighten, excite and promote wonder about the future of healthcare. Yet something that is not so often celebrated is the innovation required to turn these first stage realisations into the tangible new products that improve quality of life, cure the incurable and save lives.

From technology transfer offices in universities to crowdfunding and apps that connect businesses to research groups, multiple systems are attempting to marry the initial stages of discovery to business propositions. However, simplifying innovation to just being the direct result of serendipity would be doing the process an injustice. Each step along the innovation journey is unique, complex and requires addressing many different factors if commercialisation is to be achieved.

No matter how good an idea is, whether it claims to rewind ageing or eradicate cancer, it will need much long-term assistance and advice to successfully deliver on its innovation journey from research to commercialisation. Research breakthroughs that can kill cancers or improve dementia symptoms in the lab are all well and good, but without the innovation process to translate this research into viable products to treat such diseases, the benefits of scientific discovery on health would never be truly actualised.