Cleveland Clinic Innovations (CCI), the commercialization arm of Cleveland Clinic, has announced a restructuring and appointed two new executives. The restructuring elevates the role of Cleveland Clinic Ventures, with the goal of putting added focus on spinning off companies and raising funds to get those companies launched.
The restructuring will align the commercialization process under two Cleveland Clinic departments. Brian Donley, M.D., chief of staff at Cleveland Clinic, will oversee CCI and Steven Glass, chief financial officer for Cleveland Clinic, will oversee Cleveland Clinic Ventures.
Peter O’Neill will serve as executive director of CCI. He has more than 10 years of experience with CCI, including serving as director of commercialization and chief executive of one of its spinoff companies, Custom Orthopaedic Solutions.
Jack Miner, former director of the Venture Center at the University of Michigan, will be managing director of Cleveland Clinic Ventures. In his new role, Miner oversees a team that focuses on the 77 spin-off companies in its portfolio. He also plays a lead role in spinning off new companies and raising the funds needed to not only get off the ground, but to get all the way to market. These plans will include funding strategies, technology road maps and business model development.
“This new structure will maintain appropriate separation and eliminate any conflicts of interest in the commercialization process,” said Glass in a prepared statement. “It will also better position Cleveland Clinic to take to market the breakthrough inventions of our caregivers into new medical products and companies that benefit patients.”
Founded in 2000, CCI has issued over 850 patents and executed more than 500 licenses on medical devices and techniques. Additionally, CCI has helped launch 77 companies, which have created over 1,200 jobs and raised more than $1 billion in follow-on funding, according to Cleveland Clinic.
Successful Cleveland Clinic spinoffs include Explorys, a data firm purchased by IBM, and Intellect, a neuroscience device-maker acquired by Boston Scientific. In June 2016, CCI executed a license with a national patient experience services company to distribute and implement Cleveland Clinic’s Communicate with H.E.A.R.T. program to hospitals looking to improve their patient experience. NaviGate performed a first in human transcatheter mitral valve replacement in April 2015. Cleveland Heart Labs has grown to over 200 employees.
CCI hosts the annual Medical Innovation Summit, which brings together over 2,200 of the brightest leaders from around the world. This year’s Medical Innovation Summit will be held October 23-25 and will focus on genomics and precision medicine.
