 So today, actually, I'll be talking about what's near and dear to my heart where I've been spending almost half of my life, 25 years in technology commercialization. Hopefully by telling you a little bit about my story, you get a little bit inspired and see that it's all about creating value. So that's why the title I didn't get to change it anymore in the sense that it's all about being able to move your technology to the point where the value is created. Just like everyone, I'd like to establish my credential as a researcher first so that at least you'll believe half of what I'm going to say afterwards. Actually, I did get started in research after finishing my undergrad here and I went in biotechnology for the first few years. In 1989-93, I worked for a company in Boston and then moving onwards after coming back here for a short break in 1993 where I got acquainted with the technology. I started on that research as well and moved that from the bench being on my PhD thesis all the way to a commercial company and going from a development time of about 17 years. Again, as I mentioned, I was a Balik scientist in 2013 after having sold my company in 2012 to Johnson & Johnson. Of course, I've been always an advocate of technology commercialization and intellectual property. So hopefully you'll believe of half what I'm going to say after this. Just hoping. Okay, from a research area, I've always liked to impart to the group that before you actually start the commercialization cycle, you're normally involved with a lot of different things. Just like what Dr. Dalisa said earlier, humanities, other areas of studies actually fill you up to the point that you're ready to go to the next step. It helps. Definitely the humanities. I was sorry I'm not a UP graduate. I went to a Philippine science where Porsche, over there's my classmate in Batch 83, but I went to Baguio, a university, a Catholic university in Baguio called St. Louis. People asked me in grad school actually in 1989, what's the most important engineering course that you've taken? I said it's religion. Why? Because I ended up talking to my fellow grad students in Rensideer from India, from Korea, from Japan about the religion as a icebreaker. That's where the humanities, the soft touch came in. To just break the ice, I said I know about Shinto, I know about Buddhism, and really these are nothing to do with engineering. But that's the value of humanities. I really have for me or your earlier talk, Dr. Dalisa, thanks. But going into deep science now, as I got involved in medical product development after my research, so you'll never know when you'll end up. Again, I deal with doctors on a daily basis during my company, so dealing with UP Manila at this point is like par for the force. I tried to avoid when I came back here to go back to healthcare, but I got invited into the Global Health Forum and actually NIH, Dr. Eva, invited me as well. This is actually my third engagement in UP this year. I was in biotech and loss banyos and tried to look for... There they are. So some of these slides may be familiar, so bear with me, but I have a surprise slide at the end for you. So with that background, as you can see, I only post this so that people will get acquainted that technology commercialization takes a while. It's almost like raising a kid. So my career actually span about 25 years now and I'm still at it, actually. I'm still excited. Moving forward, may the technologies may have changed, but it's that kind of dedication, almost like vocation, if you want to call it that way. But clearly I went through several cycles and what I want to relate is every step of the way there's value creation and that's how you kind of chain of events that happen in your life as a researcher. So how did I get started? I was deep in research. I was a PhD in chemical engineering and I got started into it by simply doing one thing. I filed a patent. I discovered that the way to make my material, normally they say you can't. Once you've inoculated it, I'm a biochemical engineer, so it's like a fermentation process. Once you inoculate it, don't touch it. And I said, what if, instead of not touching it, I rotate it into the media and it created a new process of material and they said, how do you do that? And that's how I got started and I ended up filing a patent and this was actually during my break when I was involved. How many of you still remember the 1993 boom of Nada de Coco? So I'm in kindred spirits here. So I was there. I was here actually. I remember Willie Padulina who was the OSD secretary at that point talking about how we can make it sustainable at that time. There was a boom. Japan imported $28 million worth of Nada de Coco. They had a craze, a health craze about eating it. Same way, they had a craze on muscar bought in cheese from Italy. They bought the whole years in the house of gloves. So the same thing happened and Dr. Padulina said the way to make it sustainable at that point was we had to develop applications. We had to be able to know. And then do an honest-to-goodness development of product. So when I saw him, when I came back here in 2013, we were a little bit involved with the Pecari startup at that point in time, I told him hi Dr. Padulina, I did follow exactly what you did and I spent 17 years trying to commercialize the technology. So that's how it all got started by filing a patent and presenting my patent in one of these booths where an alumni of the university who just sold his diet for business approached me and he saw that material this material which is to a lot of people very familiar, that's nata di ko ko in a very thick state but it's not much different from what we actually eat in our halo-halo So he saw one of these and then that's what we got started talking in 1995 and end up starting a company and that's the birth of silos the one in the corner and it's all about a technology called microbial cellulose it's a cellulose material not much different from the table and the cloth that you're wearing it's cotton, except it's about 100 times finer than cotton and it absorbs about 100 times its weight So for a normally un characteristic layman they said oh, can I use it as a diaper super adsorbent but we ended up developing a different but as a researcher I had to be able to shift in terms of technical so being a researcher in the university is different when you already have a company where you have to think and swim, you have to raise money you have to find your counterparts, that's why I'm encouraging people here I'm daring them actually because just like anything else I always tell people you can read all the books about farming but until you take dirt you're not a farmer so the same thing with entrepreneurship and technology you can dabble and you can try to do it as a professor and do a little bit of commercialization here and there but to me the best way is to jump in and swim is what my daughter just did two weeks ago so with that kind of one thing you have to know exactly where you're jumping into and this I just want to illustrate that in my case I had to shift completely from research to more of what I need even being able to learn how to conduct clinical trials and dealing with the regulatory agencies like the FDA because my product was an FDA regulated product so those are the skill sets but what good thing about it is being an entrepreneur I can tell you I always have a different problem every month so never the same so I've always either worried about the patient worried about the sales worried about raising venture capital but it's a constant grind but it is very enriching so I dare you guys to do it but at the same time there are startup challenges which we're going through right now here in UP and we just went through one I'm happy to say that it was worth it one that went through our parents opinion report and been signed by the the technology and I'm hoping that within the next couple of years that now that the runway is open that we'll have more spinoffs coming up another area is on being able to complete your team I'm telling people just like an entrepreneurial company I'm encouraging all the CUs actually of UP commercialization team in that way they can deal with the upcoming surge in intellectual property and commercialization activity that we're trying to promote from the system level with Louisieson so clearly I just want to have for you guys to have a flavor what it takes and also be careful a lot of people ask me money is always a problem it's not actually if you have a very good idea and a clear view on where you want to take your technology money comes naturally there's enough money even in the Philippines I've been consulted by people in the business sector which I'm very intimately acquainted with and are asking me where's the technologies that you're supposed to line up for us this is what CC was asking me every year every time we see each other for dinner and I said it's not yet ready because I'm not going to put my name on it until it's good and ready and unfortunately when Dr. Benny Pacheco invited me to do a colloquium early 2013 and looked at the UP technologies and patent holders including Dr. Henry Ramos Dr. Patasanza and a host of other patents I tried in my earnest to push them forward towards commercialization unfortunately at that point in time it was not yet ready and there were additional activities that need to be done I think Professor Ramos was able to get his technology out on license but it still hasn't gone through that 50-year cycle that would make it sustainable so we're still going through the challenges so as you can see it does take time but in the event that you do get money be careful what you wish for because the people that fund startups they'll ask at your first board at least they'll ask for milestones and this is the kind of milestone activity that we're also implementing in our grant making in U.S. aid stride which I'm also a consultant I think Dr. Carla knows that because I'm handing her development research for stride we establish milestones before even starting with a project and then we monitor the milestones the same way a VC giving you money this is actually my first $1 million funding when I got it and this are the marching orders very specific but it also makes you very focused in that whatever you want to achieve it's already listed because they already know and that's exactly what we're trying to do with some of the technologies that we have here and I'm hoping that by the time we're done coming over the patent filings to disclosures to the patent filings to the commercialization strategy in UP I'm also once ready for venture capital funding and I hope that Chancellor Menchit in Dileman in Manila would have three definitely from Las Baños I'm expecting more five with all the technologies that are there already even have FPA applications cleared already in UP Dileman I'm also hoping that we have at least three three to five as well so by the time we all combined it including Visayas would have a share at least if we can achieve 20 commercialization efforts in earnest will probably at least have a real case load because I'm trying to I just visited the Rutgers University with Louis in May last year and we spoke to Mark Robson and their technology center they file about 215 patents a year and they have about 110 licensing agreements moving forward so this is one little university in New Jersey and our metrics are way small compared to that but I think we'll get there I think we'll achieve 100 disclosures and at least maybe 20-25 patents file this year and we're going to scale up and I think VCREX over there is not in his head I hope we can do that with Rick also for Visayas so moving forward on that one kind of thing that you have to adapt not everyone is geared up for being able to commercialize the technology but I always encourage the young researchers the guys in the back the young inventors usually it's not the national scientists like Dr. Toronto over here that tend to do it in their mid-career now he's doing it after emeritus career it's the young ones that have the energy and the risk taking ability so I do encourage you because it does require you to have a host of skill sets that are quite different from being a research scientist but if you if you really wanted to do it I think you'll pick it up much easier in terms of being able to do all of these things but you have to follow it from each from pitching what do you have elevator pitch we always have this rehearsal that if you happen to meet Bill Gates on the elevator and he ask you hi Al, what do you do? ah, I develop medical devices I actually build body parts to replace breaking parts in the human body oh really? how do you do that? ah, use this different material that's not been used before for these applications and we can replace human body parts as well as animal body parts that you typically use talk to me later so you should be able to concisely pitch every single time that you are available or every chance you get you see President Pascual walking there or the self-conception I need money how about an EIDR okay, then tell me what's your EIDR I'm able to digest data from the big data from Dex from Department of Education to be able to direct them where to put their supplies and their evacuation centers maybe a simple elevator pitch like that would be come in handy, you'll never know so always prepare always prepare and know your technology and what is your elevator pitch and then going to that being able to tell them why should I be interested what's the competitive edge as well as going all the way down to the clinical this word gets bloody when you have to really prove what your proof of concept is and that's what I'll stress to everyone because when I came here I also was a Balik scientist and I looked up that portfolio of DOST and if there's anything and Dr. Nuna was the EIDT head at that time if there's anything that was very challenging for us at DOST was being able to articulate the value proposition of all the technologies we funded that was the biggest challenge we have a filter, we have a dengue of the lab result of it and yet we can't say that connect that technology to how many lives did we save yesterday or today and that's the kind of technology that I wanted portion alloy from UP Manila on the RX box to be able to vocalize we now have 1000 RX boxes and it will save thousands of lives every month if this are properly put in the hands of the clinicians out there in the rural areas that's the kind of pitch that we need to be able to tell the DOI secretary the president, the senators so clearly just because you're a researcher doesn't mean you can't pitch you have to learn how to be able to tell them exactly what you're all about so with that I think just to give you a time perspective I usually use a metric I just posted the former president of the AUTM this is the association of university technology managers in the United States his name is John Pressure he was here in September and I took them to meet the system people this last week I made them meet the Dileman and UP Manila group and he always in that talk of his he always mentioned that even the most advanced technology manager in the United States like Colombia it does take time there was a video clip that he showed before the 3 by 7 it says that from the time that we filed our first patent takes us about 3 years before one third of that group of patents that we filed gets noticed for licensing and only about 70% of them gets licensed in 7 years license pa lang yan na and remember the real product development only starts at the beginning of the licensing wala pamproducto yan so imagine how long it will take to develop a product so I'm talking about like raising a kid almost before you can let them go at 18 I guess but hopefully it's not that going to be always the case but in my case 2, 5 years and 3 marketing partnerships to be able to launch a first product and a lot of people discount marketing as being just ah, laway lang yan and bila gay mo sa bag tapos get out there, sell it dali lang yan but a lot of people don't realize that this is the most difficult part of the process and this is where a lot of the technologies die because of not having the right marketing partner and I 3 of them before I could actually launch nationwide in the United States luckily the ones that we talked was able to do a good job and we were able to go to Europe within 2 years and 3 years later they wanted to buy the whole business so that's the kind of relationship that you are on the hunt for but just like anything else after you've done your first round time to scale up that's exactly what I'm worried about the RX back because it has scaled up from 100, now you're 1,000 the full scale is 45,000 if I'm correct so I'm hoping that it will come I'm not questioning that it will it's just when I hope we'll get there sooner rather than later maybe 3 years but that's a kind of iteration that we need to go through and so clearly and you also have to have a vision in my case I was there all about eliminating the risk of using animal and human materials so that was my value proposition and then of course applications there's a lot of applications in any technology but I always tell people focus only on one in software development lingo apps so in my technology there was a handful we were developing products in all these areas but the first two were the one that's fully commercialized in the wound care and the neurosurgical that took us about 8 years to develop I think I'll show that here so that's all we're doing really just combining the chemical processes as well but the one critical point that I want to make is let the users design the product for you be intimately associated with them because they'll be the ones who's going to be adopting it so in our case it was the doctors we lay out our prototypes every time they ask for it but it is them that eventually will decide what works again just to highlight this is the value proposition example of what I was replacing human and animal sourced materials so I had to identify what's the difference with my material so and just to even make it more difficult we are the first company that develop a material for implant permanent implantation of microbial cell use but it took us almost 9 years in about 20 million dollars to do it but unfortunately we got to the finish line we had our FDA approval in 2012 but it was a good time to sell the company as well but I had at least a very patient venture capital group that backed me up but it took that long so at the end of my 17 years this is the value we had 7 FDA approved product we had about I had 10 US granted patents in my name about 13 internationally I had been able to market the product for both the US and Europe with a CE mark and it was a natural point in time to sell also because again the venture capitalists that funded you want their money back and then some so you better be able to give them back with interest plus plus but what it did was it opened up more opportunities so to me it was a good time also 2012 was a good time for me to take a break and come back here I did race car driving for a year after I sold the business and my father-in-law said you can only chase so many sunsets with your Porsche I'll come back here and help the scientists in the Philippines you may be able to give them a few pointers and that's exactly what I did so in my first talks if you've seen me talk before there's one word that I always tell people to remember if you have a technology you have to trim it tabasa nyo and trim is address all those particular foods focus your technology deal with regulatory have intellectual property and yung tatlong eme yung tatlong eme nito is manufacturing, marketing and money so if you have all these ingredients then come back and form your business plan so that's my requirement elevate and usually if you do calculate your ROI it's probably science fiction in the first time around but try it anyway and have an impressive number if you can so as a personal counsel to entrepreneurs that I give because I do mentor students in enterprise with Louie I always dare the young ones and the old ones and dare them to dream about hopefully commercializing their technologies remember you can't do it all so form a team and a lot of people are hung up in the Philippines about control they think they should own 100% or 51% or super majority at 66% all these kinds of no, it's an illusion you're never in control because you don't have the money if you want to pay for everything, yes you can be in control but if you're trying to raise with venture capital investors and dealing with the FDA and the funding agencies you're never in control you're in control of technology and the business but remember you can try your best even if the venture fails or the business fails which 9 out of 10 it will yan ang stats sorry to say it this is the scary part only 9 out of 10 or even worse stats enterprise solicitation 128 business plans 8 got funded in Chicago only 2 were alive a year later so that's why we don't have a technology in UP coming out or a successful business because our technology is not that many we started when Benny was we had about 15-18 doctor Pacheco so we tried to move 3 and we didn't succeed we got to a certain point but there was not enough so we need more that's what we've been trying to do is to plant more seeds essentially but even if you fail the first time around don't worry because the business may fail but you as a person you don't fail you actually improve you get better you get harder so do it anyway so I think for those people who have seen me talk you've seen it to this one this is the news slide so at the end of all of this talk what does it take being a race car driver this is what I came up with you want to commercialize the technology drive deliver you'll promise if you're going to make early detection early cure deliver give me your scientific based proof set or reduce my risk if I'm going to adopt it the more that you have FBA or FBA approval the better because my risk as an investor is less I I think President Pasqual touched on this one innovate solve a real problem get out there know what the problems are and then innovate to solve it I always ask the professors how often do you meet industry industry I see them every now and then but no get out there because only then will you really know what industry needs and wants and then go back to your labs and then invent or innovate to be able to solve their problems then you get adoption and of course V is the value I was talking about all this time it's a value chain every step of the way every time you wake up in the morning you ask how can I make or create value for my technology today same way how am I going to serve my government or serve UP today and if you're a good researcher you can do both and last but not the least effort nipuwaiting ni nga skogun matagali ni it takes time in my case it's been 25 years it's been fun though and I encourage you to try it sometime thank you very much