Archive by category | Partnering / Licensing

Collaborate, not compete

Collaborate, not compete

Collaboration seems to be the last thing on the mind of bioentrepreneurs. This is based on personal experience as well as feedback from my fellow entrepreneur friends. It is quite disappointing and interesting as the same time, as to why most prefer to compete, and not collaborate.  Read more

BIO 2015 in Philly

BIO 2015 in Philly

The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) International Convention begins next week in Philadelphia. Running from June 15-18 this year, the conference is historically the industry’s largest gathering. The last time Philly played host (2005), the conference was slightly larger than today’s expected version, with more than 18,000 attendees. There were also more protesters than we see today – enough, in fact, for a group to clash with police, leading to, somewhat indirectly, the death of a cop.  Read more

North-South Dealing

North-South Dealing

Entrepreneurial life sciences companies have set their sights on overseas markets and have formed international partnerships to gain access to distribution channels and insight on product specifications, registration, and user preferences. I estimate that this “global health” market place is between $250-300 billion in annual sales, using a 2009 pharmaceutical sales forecast that put 14% of the total of $820 billion resulting from the emerging economies of China, Brazil, India, South Korea, Mexico, Turkey, and Russia (2009 Forecast), and so about 17% ($147 billion) occurred in the rest of world including those countries with few resources in health care. Applying  … Read more

Going Nonexclusive

Going Nonexclusive

Start up companies face a tough go- converting a new technology into saleable products on minimal funding- and those aiming at products for global health (or any health care products for sale outside the major market countries) have even a harder challenge by swimming against the conventional wisdom that a highly-priced, reimbursable product is the only way to profitability. For start-ups, time is money and the shorter time to a product prototype, the more likely is revenue and survival. To fund prototype development, most patch together funding from government (or very rarely, foundation) grants and private sources while trying to  … Read more

New Bioentrepreneur article

New Bioentrepreneur article

We’ve posted a new article, Shape Shifting, to the Bioentrepreneur site. The piece examines how to mold a company’s pipeline and opportunities, making it most attractive for partnering or buyout. It was written Bob Baltera, CEO of Amira (at the time), and the title refers to the necessity of changing the shape of a company as it progresses. But shape shifting could also refer to the article itself. The process began early this year, after a meeting with Bob at the JP Morgan healthcare conference. The article went through several drafts and took months to put together — long enough  … Read more

Czech Republic´s International Cooperation

Czech Republic´s International Cooperation

Few in the healthcare industry have not heard about Gilead Sciences’ success against HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B. Viread and Hepsera, the two flagship drugs for treating these conditions, were first conceived by Czech scientists in the Prague-based Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, led by professor Antonin Holy. They discovered tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, the active ingredient in Viread, which is used to treat HIV/AIDS. Likewise, the hepatitis B drug Hepsera produced by Gilead Sciences is based on a compound discovered in Prof. Holy’s laboratory in Prague. As a result of previous cooperation between the institute and Gilead, Holy signed a  … Read more

India ‘fixated’?

India 'fixated'?

I recently read this article, which suggests that collaborations between India and Brazil are being held back because India prefers to partner with others – namely countries in the West. It prompted some thinking on my part. From the Indian perspective, collaborations and partnerships are entirely different concepts. But the common thing in both concepts is ‘trust and understanding’ among the parties involved in such agreements or team work. In India, the growth of science, technology and innovative research are almost always independent of political relationships and turmoil. Central and state governments facilitate fellowships and allocate budgets to research centres  … Read more

Russia-India Biotech Network

Russia-India Biotech Network

In order to improve and encourage bilateral trade between India and Russia, the two countries have signed the Russia-India Biotech Network (RIBN) agreement to enhance collaboration in the biotechnology sector. The RIBN is jointly developed by the Federation of Asian Biotech Associations (FABA) and Russian Biotech Association. This development holds immense significance for Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the biotech sectors, which are likely to be encouraged by these developments to partner with Russian biotech companies for further business expansion. RIBN will be a dedicated online platform to effectively facilitate collaboration between the Russian and Indian biotech communities.  Read more