Johnson & Johnson Innovation Launches Advancing the Safe Use of Healthcare Products QuickFire Challenge

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., March 29, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC today announced the launch of the newest QuickFire Challenge: Advancing the Safe Use of Healthcare Products. The challenge seeks to identify entrepreneurs, academics, scientists, engineers or startup companies who are advancing potentially game-changing, early stage, innovative solutions to advance safety in healthcare products that help inform patients and consumers, simulate surgical procedures, and ensure proper storage and use of prescription, over-the-counter and cosmetic products.

"Dedicated to scientific excellence, bioethics and values-based decision-making, the Johnson & Johnson Office of the Chief Medical Officer has a history of collaborating externally to create innovative solutions for patients and consumers," said Joanne Waldstreicher, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Johnson & Johnson.  "Through our collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Innovation on this challenge, we hope to identify scientifically sound, breakthrough ideas that will advance both the safe use and a greater understanding of the safety of healthcare products to positively impact outcomes."

This initiative represents the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies' ongoing commitment to patient and consumer safety and independent safety assessments. It is open globally to applicants with solutions across the pharmaceuticals, medical devices and consumer products sectors. QuickFire Challenge winners will receive research grants totaling up to USD 200,000, entrance to a Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS facility and / or mentoring from Johnson & Johnson Innovation.

Prescription medication errors cause at least one death every day and injure approximately 1.3 million people each year.¹ Moreover, with increased dissemination and sharing of health information via social media and online, there is a greater need than ever before for bioethical, transparent and evidence-based information sources that help patients and consumers make more informed healthcare decisions. To help make this possible, the challenge aims to improve safety in healthcare through improving the provision of balanced and factual information – and development of solutions – to ensure safety across the spectrum of medical devices, pharmaceutical and consumer products.

QuickFire Challenge entries that reflect the overall mission of improving the safety of and safe use of healthcare products will be evaluated by a juried panel comprising senior scientific and medical research staff as well as medical safety experts within Johnson & Johnson who have expertise across pharmaceuticals, medical device and consumer sectors. Participants can enter innovative ideas, methods or technologies that will help improve safety and healthcare outcomes for patients and consumers.

The QuickFire Challenge innovation focus areas are:

• Empowering patients and consumers to make more informed healthcare decisions by providing better information and education about the safety of healthcare products (pharmaceuticals, medical devices and consumer products).
  This challenge focus area seeks ways to maximize consumer and patient education and understanding of healthcare products and their safety and efficacy, including medical devices, pharmaceuticals and consumer products. The objective is to empower patients, consumers and healthcare providers to make more informed decisions and obtain maximum benefit from product use through greater understanding of safety data and by ensuring more effective communication and enhancing education.
• Improving training and development for surgeons by identifying new models that simulate the operating room environment.
  This focus area seeks new and robust models and methods to evaluate medical devices used by surgeons in a simulated environment representative of operating room procedures, with the goal of helping the surgeon understand how to safely and effectively use a medical device and understand variability in device and performance/outcome. Entries should focus on soft tissue models that anatomically represent organ-specific anatomic features and biological properties, such as tissue injury, bleeding and clotting responses.
• Empowering patients and consumers to more safely administer and handle healthcare products.
  The third focus area seeks ways to address the challenge of prescription medication errors. Entries should identify patient- and consumer-focused devices, solutions or platforms that will prevent errors and solutions to promote safe storage and administration or extend the shelf life of prescription, over-the-counter or cosmetic products.

"Entrants can submit ideas in one of three focus areas that are critical for ensuring that we make the safest possible products on behalf of patients and consumers," said Melinda Richter, Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS. "In addition to funding, Advancing the Safe Use of Healthcare Products QuickFire Challenge winners will be awarded JLABS support that includes infrastructure, services, educational programs and networks in global hotspots."

Information about entering the challenge and entry guidelines can be found online at jlabs.tv/safetyquickfirechallenge. Participants must indicate whether they have a team in place that can bring their idea to life. Entries must be submitted by May 24, 2017. Winning entries will be evaluated and winners in each category selected in fall 2017.

About Johnson & Johnson Innovation

Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC focuses on accelerating all stages of innovation worldwide and forming collaborations between entrepreneurs and Johnson & Johnson's global healthcare businesses. Johnson & Johnson Innovation provides scientists, entrepreneurs and emerging companies with one-stop access to science and technology experts who can facilitate collaborations across the pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer companies of Johnson & Johnson. Under the Johnson & Johnson Innovation umbrella of businesses, we connect with innovators through our regional Innovation Centers, Johnson & Johnson Innovation | JLABS, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLINX, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. and our Business Development teams to create customized deals and novel collaborations that speed development of innovations to solve unmet needs in patients. For more information, visit www.jnjinnovation.com or follow @JNJInnovation.

About Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS

Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS (JLABS) is a global network of open innovation ecosystems, enabling and empowering innovators to create and accelerate the delivery of life-saving, life-enhancing health and wellness solutions to patients around the world. JLABS achieves this by providing the optimal environment for emerging companies to catalyze growth and optimize their research and development by opening them to vital industry connections, delivering entrepreneurial programs and providing a capital-efficient, flexible platform where they can transform the scientific discoveries of today into the breakthrough healthcare solutions of tomorrow. At JLABS we value great ideas and are passionate about removing obstacles to success to help innovators unleash the potential of their early scientific discoveries.  JLABS is a no-strings-attached model, which means entrepreneurs are free to develop their science while holding on to their intellectual property. JLABS is open to entrepreneurs across a broad healthcare spectrum including pharmaceutical, medical device, consumer and digital health sectors.

JLABS currently has nine locations in innovation hot spots across North America and produces entrepreneurial programs and campaigns to seek out the best science, like the QuickFire Challenges around the globe. The JLABS flagship opened in 2012 in San Diego at Janssen's West Coast Research Center, and since then, has established two locations in San Francisco - one through a collaboration with the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) and a second standalone facility in South San Francisco. JLABS is also located in Boston through a collaboration with LabCentral, in Lowell, Massachusetts through a collaboration with UMass, in Houston through a collaboration with the Texas Medical Center (TMC), in Toronto through a collaboration with the Ontario Government and the University of Toronto and a new JLABS @ NYC (in collaboration with the New York Genome Center -opening in 2018). For more information about JLABS, please visit www.jlabs.jnjinnovation.com.

¹ U.S. Food and Drug Administration Website, Medication Error Reports. https://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/MedicationErrors/ucm080629.htm

SOURCE Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC

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