Potential for Deals Drives a Big Surge in the Biotech Sector
Key points — link to article is below:
- The pharmaceutical industry has been hunting for innovation among small biotechnology companies
- The feared “patent cliff†for brand-name drugs has caused billion-dollar blockbusters cause big pharma companies to lose ground to generic competition
- Biotechnology is more prone to disappointments than perhaps any other industry
- “People are hungry for growth,†said Erik Gordon, a professor specializing in life sciences entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan’s business school.
- One gateway for acquisitions in the biotech sector is research partnerships, and those are increasing as well.
- “The one unifying theme in all the companies that have generated excitement on Wall Street is the rise of personalized medicine”, said Christoph Westphal, a longtime biotechnology entrepreneur and a founder and partner of the Longwood Fund.
- Another factor in the biotech industry’s favor is that regulators have become more supportive of drugs that address high unmet medical needs. In July 2012, the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act established the “breakthrough therapy†designation, which gave the agency the authority to speed its review of drugs to treat life-threatening ailments.
My comment: How about drugs to treat MULTIPLE life-threatening ailments caused by aging.
- “The regulators, notably the F.D.A., have been particularly willing to come up with new strategies to enable the rapid development of drugs for which there is a dramatic effect in a defined patient population,†said Robert Tepper, a partner at Third Rock Ventures, an investor in both Bluebird and Agios.
- The article offers names of companies, people and other specifics on what’s happening.
Full article: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/07/11/biotech-companies-surge-as-investors-flock-to-them
