Serono tested Management by Opportunity
in its Swiss R&D Center


Serono, the largest European bio-tech company, spends about 22% of its revenues on R&D. The output of R&D is not always predictable and some discoveries may sometimes appear not to fit the corporate objectives. This seemed to be the case for Biocell, a new biosensor apparatus, which allows to stimulate and record electrical activity of nerve and muscle in in-vitro cell and tissue cultures.

This new approach was developed by BioCell-Interface S.A. and its inventor, Dr Luc Stoppini was hired 2 years ago by the Serono Pharmaceutical Research Institute as a scientist to developed specific applications of its technology. In parallel to its scientific project, Dr. Stoppini and its small team had even managed to generate some income by selling several testing machines to other labs in the world. When the cost of maintaining this small research team was being reviewed, Serono management was tempted to stop supporting it because it did not fit the key markets Serono wanted to focus on.

Dr. Arnaud Ythier, head of the Neurology Strategic Therapeutic Area Team , felt that there was a business opportunity to develop this high content biological system. He decided to screen this project with the Management by Opportunity tools. He proposed a different business model and produced a 10 page outline demonstrating the potential of this technology. It confirmed that Serono could not only use the technology to accelerate compound testing but could also capitalize on it from spinning it off. This concise report ultimately convinced Serono's management to support spinning off this start-up.

This example shows that the potential of some innovations is not systematically identified. Inventors have a gut feeling that their invention has "potential" but they often lack the tools to demonstrate it. Using a simple, and systematic, screening methodology like MbOp allows people to check if commercialization is worth pursuing.

Dr. Arnaud Ythier, Serono
Dr. Luc Stoppini, Serono