Teva expects to collect at least 100 applications from startups and hopes to choose pilot companies in March, a spokesperson told Fierce.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is launching its first global innovation platform, challenging startups to submit novel strategies to tackle seven pervasive industry hurdles that run the gamut from manufacturing to R&D.The aim of the program, dubbed Teva Rise, is to introduce and accelerate novel solutions that can improve patients' lives and improve business efficiency, according to a Nov. 19 release. The initiative falls under the company’s ongoing “Pivot to Growth” strategy, an approach designed to foster innovation and help Teva become a leading biopharma company.Teva expects to collect at least 100 applications from startups and hopes to choose pilot companies in March, a spokesperson told Fierce. The number of companies selected will depend on the strength of the submissions, the spokesperson said.Companies chosen for the program will be able to showcase their technologies in real-world settings and “scale their impact across Teva’s global ecosystem," according to the release.Teva plans to commit “tens of millions” of dollars to the potential solutions generated through Rise, the company added. Meanwhile, “[t]he value proposition for startups goes beyond that, because, if selected, Rise also covers mentorship and funding,” Teva’s spokesperson told Fierce. Teva throws down the gauntlet The first of seven challenges for which Teva is seeking novel solutions revolves around human-predictive platforms for testing preclinical biologics. Specifically, the pharma is asking startups to submit scalable, validated tech alternatives to animal models, such as organ-on-a-chip or advanced cell culture sciences. The second area Teva is looking to tackle relates to clinical trial design. Teva wants to attract companies with artificial-intelligence-fueled protocol designs for study simulations that incorporate predictive analytics. The drugmaker is hoping the trial simulations can be used to ultimately improve protocol parameters and boost patient recruitment and retention.Apart from the more development-minded challenges laid out in the Rise program, Teva is also pressing startups to tackle hurdles related to commercialization, patient experience, manufacturing and supply chain stability. Rise challenge No. 3, for instance, looks to overhaul patient experiences with long-acting injectables—a topic close to Teva’s heart as the drugmaker strives to make a long-acting formulation of the atypical antipsychotic olanzapine a key part of its commercial schizophrenia repertoire. The company is specifically urging startups to explore digital health tools, smart devices or “behavioral science solutions” that monitor, support and improve patient perception of long-acting injectable drugs. Hitting on that goal has the potential to improve treatment outcomes for patients on these meds and to reduce healthcare costs overall, Teva argued. Nonadherence is a major issue in the use of long-acting injectable drugs, and especially so in the treatment of schizophrenia, where Teva hopes to make its mark with long-acting olanzapine and an extended-release version of risperidone, dubbed Uzedy, that snagged FDA clearance in 2023. Many of the other commercial-stage challenges laid out under Rise emphasize the potential of AI to reshape the way the industry tackles medicine supply, production and risk as well as what goes into the tough decisions drugmakers must make if inventory is strained. Challenge No. 4 tasks startups and tech outfits with rolling out advanced analytics platforms and AI-driven decision support tools to ensure drugmakers get the most out of global pharmaceutical tender processes, wherein governments, hospitals or other organizations take bids from multiple manufacturers for the supply of a medicine. Teva is further asking Rise participants to direct AI and machine learning tools toward asset reliability and maintenance, product quality and risk prediction, plus resource allocation.In essence, Teva is aiming to sponsor potential high-tech solutions that improve the reliability and efficiency of drug manufacturing, garner better insights into process risks and quality, and help improve decision-making to curb lost sales and minimize manual workloads during supply chain disruptions or shortages."Pharmaceutical manufacturers are operating under intense pressure to maintain efficiency, quality, and supply reliability amid increasing complexity," a representative for Teva explained in an emailed statement. "Today’s biggest challenges include global supply chain volatility, regulatory and quality expectations with greater focus on product traceability and process control," the representative continued. "These industry-wide realities are at the core of Teva’s commitment to implement smart manufacturing and transformation—building more resilient, data-driven, and responsive operations across its global footprint.”In many ways, the Rise platform reflects a broader change in Teva’s ethos over the past few years, driven in large part by the “Pivot to Growth” strategy rolled out by CEO Richard Francis early into his tenure at the company. While Teva for many years had been defined by its generic drug offerings, the company under Francis’ stewardship has leaned hard into its role as a generic and innovative medicines hybrid. Along with that reinvigorated emphasis on innovative medicines and novel formulations of older drugs, Teva has adopted more of a biotech mindset, Eric Hughes, M.D., Ph.D., the company’s executive vice president of global R&D and chief medical officer, explained in an interview with Fierce Pharma last fall. Working to improve facets of the drug game such as clinical trial design has been essential on Teva's mission to move multiple promising assets from its pipeline into the commercial realm, Hughes said at the time. So far, Francis’ strategy has paid off handsomely, with Teva earlier this month reporting its 11th consecutive quarter of sales growth after a protracted downturn for the company in the earlier part of the decade. “Our differentiated innovative portfolio is now a defining strength for Teva as we transform into a leading innovative biopharma, while our world-class generics business continues to provide a resilient foundation,” Francis said of the performance in a Nov. 5 earnings release.