Christopher Coburn, vice-president of innovation at Partners Healthcare, is in charge of the venturing team at the largest academic research enterprise in the US.
Partners Healthcare’s core hospitals are the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Massachusetts General Hospital, while faculty are appointed at Harvard Medical School.
Each of the 24 companies in its portfolio is built around a technology developed by Partners’ Harvard-appointed faculty at its core hospitals – Massachusetts General Hospital, rated number one in the US by US News and World Report, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, rated number six in the US.
At the start of the year in his nomination of Roger Kitterman, managing partner of Partners Healthcare’s Innovation Fund and founder of Mass Medical Angels, as a GCV Rising Star, Coburn said: “The fund’s three acquisitions, [such as CoStim Pharmaceuticals, for a total consideration of over $1bn], with several portfolio companies poised for monetisation, have yielded an internal rate of return of more than 30% and a commitment to Fund II, which will raise assets under management to $100m.”
This proves it is possible to generate annual financial returns in the shape of internal rates of return of more than 30% a year while working on commercialising early-stage ideas that result from treating patients.
It is experience Coburn previously gained as executive director of US-based Cleveland Clinic Innovations (CCI). Coburn founded the unit, which now has a team of 70, to commercialise the institute’s $300m annual research budget through licensing and spinoffs.
From its inception in 2000 to Coburn’s departure, CCI’s 55 spinoffs raised nearly $700m. He also pioneered CCI’s national Innovation Alliance, through which the clinic manages innovation for providers throughout the US.
Coburn has been on the board of Autonomic Technologies, Explorys, I360 Medical, and BioEnterprise.
Prior to his arrival at CCI, Coburn was a vice-president at Battelle Memorial Institute, a large non-profit research institute in Ohio. Coburn also served as Ohio’s first science and technology adviser to the state governor, advising on all matters of technology, science and related economic strategy.