The SmartCells Story
Dr. Todd Zion, Founder and CEO, SmartCells
ABSTRACT
SmartCells, Inc. developed SmartInsulinTM, the first glucose-regulated insulin formulation. It addresses
the most important challenge for diabetes therapy - achieving tight blood glucose control, without
hypoglycemia, to significantly reduce diabetic complications which are debilitating, costly, and pervasive.
Proof-of-concept studies in rodents, pigs, dogs and non-human primates demonstrated sugar-responsive
performance and showed SmartInsulin formulations to be non-toxic, non-immunogenic and nonantigenic. SmartCells funded its operations with $9.8 million from individual investors as well as $10.7
million in government and foundation grants. It was co-founded in 2003 by Dr. Todd C. Zion during his
Ph.D. thesis work at M.I.T. The company was acquired by Merck & Co in 2010 for upfront and
milestone-based payments in excess of $500 million.
During this talk, Dr. Zion aims to provide aspiring entrepreneurs in the engineering and science fields a
first-hand account of the challenges, risks and excitement of starting up a fledgling technology company
and nurturing it to achieve a successful outcome.
Key topics will include:
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Developing a novel technology within a university laboratory
Licensing intellectual property from an academic institution
Choosing between starting a company versus other career paths
Navigating through critical start-up issues and choosing the right team
Seeking assistance from experienced entrepreneurs
Developing a business plan and raising equity financing
Balancing personal and family life with the demands of a start-up
Achieving value-creating product development milestones
Navigating a company through a successful acquisition and beyond
BIOGRAPHY
Todd C. Zion, Ph.D. founded SmartCells, Inc. (Beverly, MA) in 2003 to develop SmartInsulin™, the first
glucose-regulated, injectable formulation for treating diabetes. As President and CEO since the
company’s founding, Todd was instrumental in raising over $9.5M in equity financing from individual
investors and over $10M in government grants to support basic research and clinical development. In
December 2010, Merck and Co. acquired SmartCells for over $500M in cash and clinical milestone
payments.
Dr. Zion developed the SmartInsulin™ technology as part of his doctoral thesis work in Chemical
Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At M.I.T., Todd won the Robert P. Goldberg
Grand Prize in the 2003 M.I.T. $50K Entrepreneurship competition. Prior to enrolling at M.I.T., he worked
as a polymer development engineer at Eastman Kodak, where he invented and was issued several
patents for the novel synthesis of polymer particles for imaging applications. Todd graduated from
Cornell University summa cum laude with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering.