Commercialisation Strategy and Delivery Model for Wales

NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership, Procurement Services (NWSSP-PS) hosted by Velindre University NHS Trust are acting on behalf of Welsh Government who is seeking expressions of interest from industry partners to share knowledge and experienced to inform the development of a comprehensive commercialisation strategy and delivery model for Wales. The Welsh Government led strategy will focus on realising commercial value from NHS innovation activity, such as the effective commercialisation of innovative products or Intellectual Property (IP) generated within the health sector in Wales/UK. The strategy is aligned with Welsh Government’s Innovation Strategy for Wales (https://www.gov.wales/innovation-strategy-wales) and Delivery Plan with a commitment to provide: ‘a clear commercial direction will be set for health care innovation’ and to support ‘innovation with a focus on commercialisation’. Over recent years, health organisations in Wales have increasingly invested in and supported innovation and are supporting the infrastructure required. Those of us with a role to lead, stimulate and support innovation have sought further insight in to our next steps. We have explored future opportunities with the intention of creating value and income from the increased innovation, research, improvement, and value activity that is now taking place across the health and care ecosystem in Wales. We asked how do successful publicly funded health organisations organise themselves to do this? We focused on IP and innovation, Collaborations and Partnerships, Decision Making, Income Generating Activity, Funding and Finance, and Guidance, tools and training. This work led to the ambition for realising commercial value from NHS innovation activity to feature in Welsh Government policy. Academic Health Solutions have been commissioned to lead work to develop the Commercial Strategy and Delivery Model. Their team is led by Malcolm Lowe-Lauri, who has worked in health and life sciences as a leader and adviser for over 40 years and Neil Mesher, who is the former Chief Executive of Phillips Healthcare in the UK, Ireland and Northern Europe. The primary objective of this industry engagement is to support the creation of a structured approach to realising value from innovation, such as products created from within or in partnership with NHS organisations, IP commercialisation or providing innovation services, which will include: a) Developing mechanisms and processes for engaging with industry, for example developing commercial arrangements to collaborate on a risk and reward sharing basis with the NHS to develop new products or services b) Creating pathways for the translation of innovation activities and developments or IP into commercial products or services. c) The provision of commercial innovation services that support health care innovation.