PharmOut, a team of MBA students from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder, took first place in the "Lightning Round" of the University of Oregon's business plan competition.
Twenty-one business schools from throughout the United States participated in the April contest. PharmOut's business model would help the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry by enabling companies to outsource their process development and clinical manufacturing needs.
Members of the team included Jennifer Eby, Doug Gier and Cecily Ford Maguire. The team was sponsored by the Robert H. and Beverly A. Deming Center for Entrepreneurship and was coached by Frank Moyes, an instructor at the Leeds School of Business.
"Scientists are uncovering new clues to disease-causing genes every day, providing ample opportunity to develop new drugs to treat diseases," said Eby. "But pharmaceutical companies need to be able to manufacture these drugs, and the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry is currently using 90 percent of available capacity with just a small number of products. Our company would give these companies a faster time to market and help them realize significant cost savings."
The "Lightning Round" is a new competition format based on a no-frills, bare-bones pitch without the use of visual aids. The team is judged on its ability to focus, absorb feedback and make adjustments on the fly.
The team plans to actually launch the business after graduation with help from CTEK, formerly known as the Colorado Technology Incubator.