Archive by date | September 2011

Key strategic choices – ‘what’ to develop

Key strategic choices - 'what' to develop

As I discussed in my last post, the key strategic issues facing biotech start-ups are capital constraint, regulatory burden and the need for complementary assets and credibility. Together, with project specific factors such as market opportunity and competition, they shape decisions about what, when, and how a firm plugs into the value chain. These decisions are captured in the firm’s business model. Over my next few posts I am going to explore the implications and trade-offs that surround each of these strategic decisions, beginning with what.  Read more

Leaving the bench: How life sciences grads can enter the business world

One aspect of my role here at MaRS is that I get many requests from graduate life sciences students who wish to make the leap into the business world. Having done so myself (albeit many moons ago) it is a pleasure to be of help.  Read more

Four Types of “Premature Scaling” in Biotech

Earlier this week the Startup Genome project released a report on the DNA of internet startups. Essentially what attributes lead to success or failure. One of the things they found was that 74% of startups failed because of “premature scaling”. Sounds like an unfortunate medical condition. Its when internet startups build their companies too fast and spend too much money before they really know what they have – their product, customer, market, etc…  … Read more

Doing It Yourself

Doing It Yourself

Being a small company in the Brazilian biotech field and being a family business is really a challenge. With 30 years of history, we have a lot of good stories to tell regarding the challenges and curiosities of an innovative company in this sector. I remember when the CEO/founder of the company, Dr. Francisco Wykrota, together with his co-founding brother, Dr. Leonardo Wykrota, filed for financial support from the government via an agency called FINEP. The project aimed to promote an innovation establishing the manufacture of a material that was going to be used as a synthetic bone to reconstruct  … Read more

Fast start, not short course

Fast start, not short course

Social networking website LinkedIn went public in May and the share price more than doubled on the first day of trading. By all accounts, it was a very successful IPO: LinkedIn raised over $350M in an offering that valued the company around $3B, and the existing and IPO investors could book a substantial, immediate return. In contrast to the hope of a mere resuscitation of IPOs in biotech sector, murmurs of another tech bubble ensued after the LinkedIn offering. Other tech IPOs in 2011, namely Zillow and Qihoo 360 Technology, also enjoyed extraordinary first trading days, appreciating 79% and 134%, respectively.  Read more

Academic Serendipity to Clinical, Commercial Success

Academic Serendipity to Clinical, Commercial Success

I always say to my colleagues “Success has no formula, but failure does.” Often, biotech spin-offs yield more in experience than they do history. But I would like to share the story of a colleague of mine who went from a humble academic job in the microbiology department in a national university to a clinical success story. His lab in Tokyo is now providing cell-based immunotherapy via 6,000 transfusions a year, from all over Japan and from neighboring countries. Hiroshi Terunuma started his career as a medical microbiologist in the Yamanashi University School of Medicine in the late ’90s, when  … Read more

Indian documentation, part II

Indian documentation, part II

In a previous blog post I wrote about incorporation and the different activities related to ROC (Registrar of Companies) and preparing Memorandum of Association (MOA) and Articles of Association (AOA) for the proposed company. MOA and AOA should be filled in the applicant’s handwriting, and the applicant must be one of the directors or registered company secretary. The applicant must, in the presence of a witness, mention their full name, their father’s name, occupation, residential address, number of shares subscribed for, etc. If you’re a foreigner, your approved document for proof of identity and residency is your passport. For a  … Read more