Scott Johnson President and Founder

February 22, 2007

We are grateful to the editors of Fast Company for including us on their 2007 list of Fast 50 entrepreneurs committed to changing the world. Like the other 49 companies that were recognized, the Myelin Repair Foundation clearly meets the magazine’s standards for a commitment to innovation and speed. Where we differ fundamentally, however, is that MRF is the only not-for-profit organization included in the list, making the magazine’s brief description of our work inaccurate and misleading.

There are two errors that concern us most. First, the description presents MRF as a for-profit company, describing us as a “prototype for all biotech startups.” While our Accelerated Research Collaboration™ (ARC) model is considered by many to be a new paradigm for medical research, its sole purpose is to speed basic scientific discoveries and bridge the gap between academic medical research and biotech and pharmaceutical companies who develop drug discoveries. In so doing, we are able to facilitate scientific discoveries and guide them through the drug pipeline, into clinical trials and to patients—our driving force. Though biotech companies may ultimately benefit from the discoveries that we are feeding into the pipeline, the ARC model is not a template for biotech startups.

The second error, which is more disturbing to us, is that “(Scott) placed a few calls to friends in Big Pharma, offering first crack at the team’s results in exchange for a 50-50 split of the profits.” This is simply not the case. What is true is that potential revenues earned from the licensing of our drug targets to commercial companies will be shared between MRF and the participating universities—all not-for-profit entities—and most likely be used for further research.

To Fast Company’s credit, they would not be the first to misunderstand or even misrepresent our model. Clearly what many of our supporters find attractive about it is that it is based on the best-practices of the commercial world where the end game is real, measurable results. What is unique, however, is the application of these principals to academic medical research where the culture and reward system are driven by the creation of new knowledge for its own sake and not the development of therapeutics that will improve quality of life.

To all who have supported our work, please rest assured that (1) our mission to accelerate the discovery, development and delivery of patient treatments remains unchanged, and (2) that as a not-for-profit organization, MRF plans to use possible licensing revenues to fund additional research.

While we appreciate the acknowledgment of our work by Fast Company and the other media organizations that have helped us to tell our story, when errors are made it is our job to set the record straight.

Sincerely,
Scott Johnson
President and Founder