Nope, I did not think I could pitch a baseball, let alone design and give a pitch to industry. I had done neither of these before, but now I was taking the plunge and entering the “So you think you can pitch?” 2020 competition held by Monash Biomedical Discovery Institute.

Pitching antimicrobials

Pitching an idea to industry was something I had read about, but never practised. It was something that I endeavoured I would one day do, and hoped more researchers would be doing. Why? Well, it would mean there is change coming for antibiotic development and perhaps the broken antibiotic pipeline is on the mend.

Our immunotherapeutics for superbugs, or any new antimicrobials have a huge uphill battle before reaching our pharmacy’s shelves. This is in part due to the lack of interest from Big Pharma to invest in this area, and is completely understandable when shareholders expect returns on their investments. The research, trials and licensing of new drugs is expensive, and new antibiotics yield less profit than drugs for cancer or chronic conditions. Patients take antibiotics for only a week or two, compared to years for chronic conditions. Plus antibiotics must be used judiciously to avoid overuse and resistance developing. Thus don’t go expecting huge sales either. We have come to expect antibiotics to be cheap, and readily available. We don’t value antibiotics as the life saving medicines that they are. Only 100 years ago ⅓ of deaths were due to simple infections. With discovery of antibiotics mortality has gone down and antibiotics have become a cornerstone of life saving modern medicine. But this is under threat with increasing rates of antibiotic resistance. We do face modern medicine being plunged back into the dark ages as we will get to the stage where there are no antibiotics to left on the pharmacy shelf that are fit for purpose. We are already there for some bacterial infections being resistant to all our antibiotics.

With the risks and lack of profits, why would any commercial developer invest in antibiotics? There are changes happening to lure back investors – market entry rewards, subscription models (think Netflix for antibiotics), public/private partnerships like CARB-X (the Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator) and GARDP (the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership). Hopefully with these and further changes pitching antimicrobials to investors will become a common event, and I can put the skills learned during the competition into practise.

The competition

I found myself in a Zoom meeting. Nothing unusual for Melbourne in 2020 with Covid19 outbreaks causing lockdowns that resulted in working from home more often than not. But this Zoom meeting was a little different, it brought together four early career researchers that had been selected as finalists in the BDI “So you think you can pitch competition?”. Joining us were four mentors who aimed to share their knowledge on pitching to industry. The finalists had been given written directions and came to the meeting with what we thought was a pitch of our science to a potential investor. Let’s just say we had a lot to learn. With our amazing mentors providing personal guidance over a few Zoom meetings, our talks turned into pitches. To see how our pitches changed from that first meeting to what was presented at the final Industry showcase was inspirational. A huge thank you to our pitch mentors for imparting their knowledge, it would not have been possible without you.

I learnt so much from developing my own pitch as well as observing the changes in the pitches of the other participants. It was these worked examples, personal feedback, and practised use of the skills from one Zoom meeting to the next that really changed, although challenged, our thinking.

The Covid19 pandemic meant that the BDI Industry showcase event that was to be host to the “So you think you can pitch?” competition was moved online. Our talks were pre-recorded at Monash University’s MicroStudio. I found this more nerve racking than if I was giving the talk in person. The talk would live on for prosperity, recorded for all to see. The little hiccups, and mistakes would be recorded, as we only had two takes to get the pitch right. No going back and doing over to try and simulate a real-life event. So, it had to be good. Talking to the other finalists afterward revealed this to be a common feeling – in front of the camera was much more nerve racking than live on stage.

Our judges had a hard task of selecting a winner and a runner up from the four pitches filled with exciting science that is happening at the BDI.

• Dr Cathy Drinkwater, Director of Project Management, BioCurate Pty Ltd
• Dr Rob Crombie, Managing Director of Concept2Clinic Consulting
• Dr Siro Perez, Life Sciences team of IP Group Australia

The audience also had their say with selecting the people’s choice winner on the night. Prize money was up for grabs thanks to the event sponsors of MTPConnect, Medical Research Commercialisation Fund, and Monash BDI. You can watch all 4 finalists pitches below.

Who do you think can pitch?

Want to compete?

Are you at Monash BDI and want to improve your science communication and pitching skills? Find out more about this competition and enter by contacting Industry Engagement at the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute. When I competed this was run by the Director of Industry Engagement Associate Professor Sheena McGowan. Good luck!

A huge thank you to Monash BDI Industry engagement, the mentors, judges, finalists, and sponsors for making this event possible.

---

Further reading:

Monash University article on the “So you think you can pitch competition?”

Conversation article on learning from Covid19 to fix the antibiotic pipeline

The antibiotic pipeline in 2020 and the WHO report on the clinical pipeline

Efforts to stimulate the antibiotic pipeline- https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(19)30552-3

---

Dr Jenn Payne
@DrPayne_AMR