Universities and teaching hospitals have long sought to turn their scientific discoveries into lucrative business deals. Indeed, 10 cancer drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration originated at Memorial Sloan Kettering. But the Paige.AI arrangement is different because what’s being commercialized is not an invention, per se, but rather access to raw materials — notes and slides — gathered over decades.
Paige.AI is among a growing number of companies, including Google and Microsoft, that are exploring ways to use artificial intelligence to improve health care. Pathology has been a focus because it remains a time-consuming, error-prone and often subjective process, where doctors examine tissue slides to decide whether cancer is present, and which type. Other start-ups in the field include PathAI, based in Boston, and SpIntellx, which is working in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh.
The Paige.AI project finally took off after enlisting the help of Norman Selby, a member of the hospital board’s executive committee and a longtime health care consultant, manager and investor. He is listed as a founder and executive chairman of Paige.AI and holds an equity stake.
Jim Breyer, the early Facebook investor and venture capitalist, also agreed to invest. At a New York Times conference in February on artificial intelligence, he said Paige’s goal would be “to provide predictive data and help to cancer physicians around the country — as second opinions, in many cases as well, because not everyone of course has access to a Sloan Kettering.”
The three other hospital board members who became investors are Stanley Druckenmiller, Alexander T. Robertson and Marie-Josée Kravis, according to Richard Beattie, honorary chairman of the cancer center’s board and a member of its executive committee. “We were desperate,” he said in an interview. “This is more risky than most transactions, and we couldn’t find investors.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/health/memorial-sloan-kettering-cancer-paige-ai.html