The pharma world is notoriously slow moving, taking years to develop a molecule. Meanwhile digital health companies are often working at breakneck speed to innovate. This is just one of the many culture gaps the pair encounter working together, according to digital innovation vet Naomi Fried.

This morning, Fried and pharmaceutical exec Laura Gunn announced a new accelerator, dubbed PharmStars, that is focused on helping to bridge this gap and educating both sides about how to work together.

Fried has been in the innovation space for decades, serving as the first VP of innovation and advanced tech at Kaiser Permanente and then as the first chief innovation officer at Boston Children's. But it was working for Biogen when she really started to see this issue evolve.

"I was recruited to Biogen to develop their innovation beyond the molecule strategy. That was when I really began to think about and work on the potential value that digital health brings to the pharma industry," she said.

While digital health may have had a value proposition, the pair don't always see eye to eye. After working in pharma, she moved to consulting where she heard about the issues from both parties.

"What I've observed over the last five years or so is there seems to be a pharma startup gap between pharma and the digital health companies. They can't seem to get together and do the types of deals that make senses from the perspective of the patients," Fried said.

This was where she got the idea for PharmStar. Starting today, June 1, startups interested in working with pharma will be able to apply for the new accelerator's first cohort. In order to be considered the companies need to have a product. The program will last 10 weeks and the first cohort will start in the fall. 

"The idea is to really focus on education. We're creating a program we're calling PharmaU which has three components. First, it has classes, workshops, we are do with the startups to help educate them on what they don't know, but important to know about pharma. It's so hard to have a partnership with someone you don't understand.

"We want to help them understand this very opaque industry and how pharma is organized, what the functions are, what their boundaries and criteria are, why being regulated is so important and how it impacts their business, and it will impact the startup-- all sorts of nuts-and-bolts details on data privacy and security, compliance with GDPR and CCPA – a lot of things that would not occur to digital health startups. But if they want to work with pharma, these details apply to them."

The second component is mentorships. Startups will get professional mentorships from Fried, Gunn and others. Unlike other programs the mentors are not volunteers, but rather professionals associated with the program.

But it's not just the startups going to the classroom.

"The third component of our program is called executive ed for pharma, where we are going to be working with them around some of the issues that they wrestle with, such as buy versus build," Fried said.

"How do you build an innovation program within a large organization? How do you socialize people? Our program draws on my years as a consultant, seeing the same issues and challenges come up – and my experience building innovation programs within large organization."

The first cohort's program will culminate in a private showcase event for startups and members only. At that time pharma members will be able to meet with startups to talk about goals and partnerships.

According to Fried, the goal of the program is to foster deals and partnership between the two stakeholders. The actual accelerator does not take equity in startups.

After years of working in the space, Fried said vision is important when it comes to creating this bridge for these companies.

"I think a key component, necessary for successful deals are clear value propositions that support both  the pharma and the digital health startup. Both have to be able to see and articulate what they get out of the partnership. I think very strong corollary is a business model that works--that is a win-win. …

"I think [another] key component is aligned expectations, including milestone and timeline. This may mean pharma may have to move more quickly than they are comfortable. It may mean startups have to wait longer than they are used to. There has to be a clear set of expectations that both partners are working towards."