BIOtechNow

Hundreds of attendees turned out to glean insights from findings outlined in Ernst & Young LLP’s (EY) 27th annual report on the biotechnology industry – Beyond borders: matters of evidence – officially launched at Tuesday morning’s Super Session at the 2013 BIO International Convention. The report was presented by Glen Giovannetti and Gautam Jaggi of EY’s Global Life Sciences Center, and the Super Session featured a panel of industry leaders, including: Brian Edelman, VP, Corporate Read More 

BIO’s results from the BIO 2013 Convention 1×1 meeting analysis conducted to identify trends and intentions of therapeutic in-licensors and out-licensors were released today. The analysis looked at the meeting activity of 180 in-licensors attending the Chicago conference in terms of what therapeutic areas and stages of development were in highest demand. Of the 804 drug R&D companies, companies in Phase I/Rare Disease came out ahead as a group, with an average of >17 meetings/company. This was followed by Phase Read More 

The BIO Business Forum at the International Convention is in full swing! Partnering meetings began at 8:00am this morning, with the first Exhibitor Partnering meetings starting later in the day after the Opening Ceremony. Presentations have also begun. We’ve been highlighting a few presenters in our snapshot campaign, and below is more information on another: Acreo Swedish ICT, a diagnostics and platform technologies company presenting Wednesday at 10:30am in the Chicago Cubs Room. Read more Read More 

As mentioned in our twitter feed, BIO Business Forum and Exhibitor Partnering has surpassed the number of requests in the system over last year’s totals. Over 130,000 partnering meeting requests are off in cyberspace, and close to 22,000 meetings already scheduled. This includes about 4,900 exhibitor partnering meetings, which is another stat beating last year’s numbers. We’ve been excited about the addition of exhibitor partnering, and it’s been great to see the adoption by the exhibitors themselves. Read More 

There are more than 400 delegates from the UK attending the 2013 BIO International Convention. These include delegates from four innovative life science companies – Abcodia, Critical Pharmaceuticals, Nanomerics, and PsiOxus Therapeutics – who won the recent UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) Innovation Competition and will showcase their technologies to an international audience in Chicago. The UK presence at the convention will be centred on the UK pavilion (stand 4441) hosted by the BioIndustry Association (BIA) Read More 

There has been quite a lot of hoopla in the anti-biotech community over a tiny provision in the spending bill recently signed by President Obama. The “Farmer Assurance Provision” protects farmers and growers when a previously approved and deregulated biotech seed becomes the subject of frivolous lawsuits. Opposition groups such as the Center for Food Safety use the judicial system to challenge USDA’s regulatory authority that governs biotech crops and to potentially halt the use of the Read More 

Last week the Milken Institute, a nonpartisan economic think tank, released a Financial Innovations Lab Report: Unleashing the Power of the Bio-Economy. The Milken Institute hosted a Financial Innovations Lab on industrial biotech in April of 2012 to explore ideas to spur the industry, bringing together leading scientists, senior government officials, industry executives, institutional investors and venture capitalists. Tremendous potential for economic and environmental benefits exist with using biobased chemicals instead of petrochemicals. Thanks to Read More 

BIO’s own David Thomas, Director of Industry Research, delivered opening remarks at the BIO-Europe Spring conference in Barcelona yesterday. His slides provide a snapshot of the biotech industry’s performance and highlight emerging trends in venture exits: IPOs and M&A. Takeaways from his talk include breakouts on multiple fronts for the industry: FDA approvals at highs not seen since the 1990s Orphan designation approvals at all-time highs IPOs starting to show signs of life in 2012 Read More 

Last week, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack wrote a column talking about the unlimited opportunities for biofuels to grow the rural economy. He highlighted what the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has already done to support biofuels including loan guarantees and research centers, and talked about the contributions biofuels have already made to strengthen our nation’s economic and energy security. The United States is rapidly building a biobased economy, where biotechnology is used to convert Read More 

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to discuss biotech’s storied history with Fred Frank, one of the industry’s greatest luminaries, on what we can learn from the past to help shape the future. Fred Frank, formerly Vice Chairman of both Lehman Brothers Inc. and Peter J. Solomon Company, recently became Vice Chairman of Burrill & Company and Chairman of Burrill Securities, the broker dealer arm of Burrill & Company. He was the first life Read More 

The Government of Brazil approaches the patent policy crossroads with two ministries wanting to move in opposite directions.  In the last few months, both the Brazilian Patent Office (INPI) and the Brazilian Regulatory Authority (ANVISA) issued proposed rules concerning patents and are sifting through public comments to determine how they will deal with biotech patents. A quirk in Brazilian law requires that the health regulatory authority (ANVISA) must provide “prior consent” on the grant of a pharmaceutical patent.  Traditionally, Read More 

Every February we celebrate Black History Month recognizing the contributions and accomplishments of African Americans and their role in U.S. history. George Washington Carver should be honored as an important figure influencing modern industrial biotechnology. The American scientist changed the nature of farming by using science to make everyday products from agricultural materials. As the leading figure of the “chemurgy” movement, the branch of applied chemistry that derives industrial products from agricultural raw materials, he Read More 

Less than a decade ago, the nation’s energy experts projected imports of oil to continue to grow throughout the first third of the century. Both Congress and the President recognized that this was a threat to our economic competitiveness and growth. So, the United States made a commitment to developing new forms of biofuels, particularly cellulosics, to reduce reliance on foreign oil. Today, experts are projecting an American energy renaissance and achievement of energy self-reliance Read More 

What was your top Biopharma highlight for 2012? If it wasn’t the stellar move in the AMEX Biotech Index (up 42%), or the reauthorization of PDUFA, then perhaps it was the decade high for innovative drugs approvals. We would need to go back to the 1990s to find a year with as many FDA approvals for novel drugs as we had in 2012. Adding to the positive trend in numbers, up 29% from the robust Read More 

As I have mentioned in past blog posts, the U.S. bioscience industry has demonstrated stability through turbulent economic times. While not immune from the recession, this industry generally fared much better than the overall economy and has remained a net a job generator. In April of 2012, the White House released the National Bioeconomy Blueprint noting that bioscience industries are “a large and rapidly growing segment of the world economy that provides substantial public benefit.” Read More