Regium is the first spin-off of Aggregate

In the past year I’ve spent a good chunk of my time working on this project: “New partnership leverages promising Canadian stem cell IP“.

Aggregate Therapeutics Inc. is a development-stage regenerative-medicine company that aggregates complementary technologies and leverages them across a common development platform, management team and source of capital. This approach gives the company critical mass and lowers the risk, cost, and time to market in developing and commercializing stem cell-based therapeutic products.

In the eternal debate about whether science should be commercial, I can argue equally for both sides.

“Wikinomicsâ€? authors discuss a so called “Balancing Point” (p.180) in the broader context of finding the right balance between the public foundation and private enterprise.

Aggregate Therapeutics Inc., in its current form, promises to strike this balance and to deliver on many important points which are considered to be essential for success:

1. Incentives reward inventors and encourage dissemination of their output;
2. Balance between market mechanisms for selecting projects for development and government support to offset risks undertaken by the early investors;
3. Legal structure which enables commercial freedom of action while preserving academic freedom of inquiry.

Aggregate was started as an ambitious experiment, a brand new model for commercializing university and hospital based research. I heard many unsolicited comments from observers outside of Canada that the first phase of this effort has been a resounding success. The second phase is just starting now.

Our team has not taken on an easy task. While the eventual economic impact of regenerative medicine is immense, these are early days for the industry. Now is the time for visionary and ambitious investors to come to the table as well.

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