Biotech Blog

With two life science IPOs earlier this month, and seemingly fewer stories of biotechnology firm liquidations, it seems that the tides are turning — ever so slightly — in the favor of biotechnology.

This is a student paper from the 2009 final projects in the NIH Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences’ TECH 366 — Biotechnology Management. The students were asked to tell a story based on the course lectures, and to expand with general lessons on biotechnology company management.
Financial opportunities for early stage biotech companies
Tammy Jones
One [...]

For all the talk of the numerous biotechnology companies with mere months of cash left and the predictions of looming liquidations, mergers, and acquisitions, it is important to note that a measure of destruction can benefit industry progress.
Economy Joseph Schumpeter coined a term for industrial progress through destruction: creative destruction. In this process, growth occurs [...]

Emergent biotechnology companies are very reliant on capital, often having less than two years capital on hand. Like other businesses with strong needs for cash, one would expect biotechnology companies to be adversely effected by a dearth of capital.
The biotechnology financial crisis and request for pass-forward tax breaks have been covered elsewhere; I’ve been looking [...]

On returning from a meeting with a small biotechnology firm in which I serve on the advisory board, I was reminded of a novel strategy for attracting venture capital.
One of the challenges is attracting investment is finding an investor aligned with your company’s future directions. Venture capitalists may be interested only in large companies, in [...]