Incubating innovation

Two years ago, the Janssen R&D LLC unit of Johnson & Johnson formed an internal incubator to solve a key problem: managing discoveries that relate to diseases outside its areas of focus. Now, the incubator is lifting the veil on six of its programs-the most advanced of which involves a new approach to study autism spectrum disorder-and on its culture of internal entrepreneurship.

Programs eligible for the incubator fall outside the set of diseases contained in Janssen's five therapeutic areas of focus: cardiovascular disease and metabolism, immunology, infectious diseases and vaccines, neuroscience and cancer...