Biotech’s Toughest Love

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Biotech companies are a critical element of the pharmaceutical business, delivering life-saving and quality-of-life improving medicines and medical devices to patients.  They can be considered a beating heart of innovation, filling up many of productivity and innovation gaps at pharmaceutical companies. A broad array of their novel products and discoveries brings hope for patients suffering from previously untreatable conditions and diseases. Small biotech organizations tend to operate with very few experts onboard, prioritizing clinical development and regulatory expenditures to reach their value creation goals: achieving proof-of-concept and obtaining regulatory approval. Historically, commercial aspects were not at the top of the biotech’s priorities. Now, more than ever, biotech needs to get commercial aspects of drug development right. Regulatory approval of the new drug is a significant milestone; however, without commercial/market access & pricing strategy in place, it may lead to a failure further down the road.

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Patent & Regulatory Exclusivity in Pharma R&D

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When one thinks about the role of the patent attorneys, it may not be obvious how paramount are they for the life science industry. Do we perceive them as the pharma’s secret agents on an ongoing, critical mission? If not, we should. They work behind the research and development scene, making sure the company can maximize the value of the drug candidates and related inventions. This article, in the form of Q&A, covers the patent and regulatory exclusivity topics in biopharmaceutical R&D. Continue reading

Investing and Partnering in Drug Development

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During my career, I have been on the both sides of the financial partnership table. I have led ‘due diligence’ process together with my drug & business development teams at pharma. Currently, I represent the third party capital providers assessing development risks for various pharmaceutical assets.  Since this is an area of interest for many of my blog readers, this article will explain the basics of the investments and partnerships models for pharma and biotech companies. Considering that there are fundamental differences between the pharma and biotech organizations and how they manage their portfolio strategies, the article is split into two parts:

  • Part 1 will cover the basics of the large pharma partnering models with third-party capital providers
  • Part 2 will focus on partnering models for different types of biotech companies

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A Secret Life of the Patent Attorney

business-suit-690048_1920-copy-copyWhen one thinks about the role of the patent attorneys, it may not be obvious how paramount are they for the life science industry. Do we perceive them as the pharma’s secret agents on an ongoing, critical mission? If not, we should. They work behind the research and development scene, making sure the company can maximize the value of the drug candidates and related inventions. This article, in the form of Q&A, covers the patent and regulatory exclusivity topics in biopharmaceutical R&D. Continue reading

Investing and Partnering in Drug Development (Part 1 of 2)

businessman-1106919_1920During my career, I have been on the both sides of the financial partnership table. While at pharma, I have supported due diligence together with the rest of the development team. During recent months, I have been assessing various pharmaceutical assets regarding development risks for investors. I found that area fascinating from a personal growth standpoint. It came naturally to me that many of my blog readers may benefit from learning about investment partnerships models for pharma and biotech companies. Continue reading