Drug Checking Technology Challenge: How can we help new innovators thrive?

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Drug Checking Technology Challenge: How can we help new innovators thrive?

1 November 2021

In this blog, co-authored by Impact Canada’s Julie Greene and Challenge Works’ Andrea Richardson, we discuss the ‘unusual suspects’ the Government of Canada’s Impact Canada and Challenge Works have worked with in their respective challenge prize programs.

On March 8, 2021, the Government of Canada’s Drug Checking Technology Challenge (DCTC) planning team gathered for (one of many) virtual meetings a year into the Covid-19 pandemic. But this highly-anticipated call was different; our DCTC team was about to change the fortunes for one company, and perhaps the lives of countless other individuals.

The Drug Checking Technology Challenge was launched by the Canadian Government to improve drug checking technology, allowing the community of people who use drugs and those who support them to make more informed decisions based on the composition of a drug to reduce harm. Joining us on the call, and still unbeknown to them, were the $1,000,000 grand prize winners of the challenge, Alexander Boukin and Ari Forman, inventors of the Scatr Series One. Alex and Ari represent one key element of what challenge prizes aspire to achieve – directing new talent, partners and resources to help solve incredibly complex problems.

Scatr Series One

A Series One box. The text reads More Data. more analysis. More lives saced.

Alex Boukin and Ari Forman (Ontario) are developing a game-changing device that can accurately and quickly test illegal street drugs for multiple substances, including hard-to-detect fentanyl. With Canada’s opioid crisis worsening and the deadly presence of fentanyl growing, the goal is for all of Canada’s harm-reduction sites to have the easy-to-use, precise and affordable device to help save lives.

Currently sites can use point-and-shoot Raman spectrometers that are limited to collecting just one data point to analyze narcotics; the Scatr Series One, however, collects and classifies hundreds to thousands of spectra in as little as 60 seconds without destroying the sample, making it much more likely substances like fentanyl are detected. The Series One also uses cutting-edge web browser technology, so when a harmful substance appears in one location, other harm reduction sites are alerted.

Never having applied for funding from the Government in the past, and having established their company through partnerships and grants that allowed them to retain full equity, Scatr was drawn to pivot work they were completing on a blood-typing device to align with the important need highlighted by the Drug Checking Technology Challenge. Although they faced stiff and significant competition from academic and other private sector applicants, they were ultimately chosen through a robust assessment process, including a review by experts in the harm reduction field, input from people with lived and living experience, and evaluation by the esteemed DCTC jury. The Scatr Series One device has the greatest potential to be deployed broadly in environments where it is needed, without sacrificing accuracy, sensitivity or the ability to easily use the device, interpret the results and share data.

Having worked on this challenge since 2017, that particular meeting was an exciting and emotional moment, as we watched Alex and Ari listen patiently through the welcomes and introductions with their families gathered nervously behind them on screen. It was hard to keep a poker face, knowing what was coming for this young company. To say it was gratifying to watch their frank joy, actual disbelief and quiet pride would be an understatement. One can only imagine the celebration that took place when we left the call! And then, back to work for Scatr, as the need for their technology is clear and urgent.

Challenge prizes, like the Drug Checking Technology Challenge, can incentivise new and original thinkers like Alexander Boukin and Ari Forman to solve a problem, identifying solutions that may not have been otherwise imagined or considered.

Through the challenge prize method, ‘unusual suspects’ – innovators with a clever idea but little track record, or innovators who often get overlooked by traditional funding programs – are better placed to compete with the incumbents.

This is something Challenge Works has observed in evaluations of past prizes, where teams often report little previous direct experience with prize topics. The Government of Canada also found this to be true in the Drug Checking Technology Challenge: 23 of the 24 initial challenge applicants were new applicants to government funding and the three finalists (including Scatr) were small, startup companies, looking to make a breakthrough in the drug checking technology market.

But how are challenge prizes able to incentivize and support unusual suspects?

Attracting unusual suspects dates back to the 1714 Longitude Prize, designed to find a solution that accurately measured longitude at sea. While many competitors attempted astronomical solutions, clockmaker John Harrison was convinced (and eventually so was the prize-awarding Board of Longitude) that an accurate portable clock would allow precise navigation by the stars. Whether a 1714 watchmaker or two young inventors from Canada in 2021, challenge prizes can support the fresh thinking needed to tackle today’s increasingly complex problems.

Challenge Works works in partnership with the Government of Canada’s Impact Canada as it co-designs challenges with government departments. Visit challengeworks.org to learn more about Challenge Works and impact.canada.ca to learn more about Impact Canada.