Products and ServicesThe Obesity and Diabetes Research Institute will focus exclusively on the study and treatment of obesity and its metabolic complications. There are three broad categories of services or products that enhance each other in a synergistic fashion.
Clinical Services The hospital will offer a comprehensive weight loss program, underpinned by safe and effective weight loss surgery in a multi-disciplinary program. The principal weight loss operations offered consist of: Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass The surgical staff recruited will all be fellowship-level trained in minimally invasive bariatric surgery and will be beyond the recognized learning curve for these procedures. For patients who are not candidates for surgery or do not wish to have surgery, the medical weight loss section will provide dietary, pharmacological and behavioral approaches to weight loss. Many insurance companies require 6 months of supervised, non-surgical weight loss. ODRI’s non-medical solutions will be physician-supervised. This section will be actively involved in research related to medical weight loss therapies. Patient pathways are established to streamline and improve efficiency of patient care. Clinical pathways have been established for the various surgical procedures. Research Services The goal of research will be the development of intellectual property and the advancement of clinical and basic science related to obesity. Intellectual property will belong to ODRI, and will be licensed or sold (“commercialized”) thus comprising an additional revenue stream. The strategy will be to position ourselves, by levering our combined clinical and research resources, to become a major research and development pipeline which will be sought after by the pharmaceutical, life sciences and medical devices industries. Research will be driven and directed by the research interests of the various research groups. A technology transfer office (TTO) will be located in the hospital, and staffed with a director and development staff and whose objective will be to assess the commercial potential of research efforts and to process patent and licensing of intellectual property. Research will be focused on ultimately creating breakthrough technologies to serve the bariatric and diabetes marketplace for medical devices, drugs and treatment therapies. Research will be funded in the early stages by the free cash flow from the clinical activities of the hospital. In addition, grant money through working in collaboration with non-profit and university bodies is expected. Example of Potential Research Areas These areas could result in the creation of intellectual property of value that be commercialized. 1. New medical device for endoscopically deployed weight loss procedure – lead time ~ 5 years to market 2. Improvement of existing adjustable gastric band to reduce its complication rates 3. Improved suture technology 4. Pharmacologic methods for appetite regulation 5. Licensable genomic and proteomic databases relating to obesity Minimally invasive techniques for weight loss surgery is still in evolution, with a lot of on-going pre-clinical activity in establishing endoscopic approaches to weight loss. This will be one important potential source of IP for medical devices. The other area of activity is in understanding the mechanisms of appetite regulation and attempts to pharmacologically regulate these using drugs, currently prescribed and taken orally. This we believe will eventually replace surgical approaches to weight loss. The general lead time for bringing 'a pill' to the market with FDA approval is about 10 years. |
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