To find our First Rounders podcast with Rachel Haurwitz, go here. The Caribou website is here, if you do not feel like googling. A nice profile from Stat can be found here, and this is the press release on the founding of Intellia. Here is a guest blog post from Scientific American on the patent fight over CRISPR technology, and below is a link to a PDF on the patent finding.
Street scene from the March for Science event in New York City. Source: Vivien Marx
On April 22, organizers pulled off a worldwide March for Science, with large demonstrations in Washington, DC; New York City; San Francisco and many, many other locations. The stated goal was to fight back against a dialogue of scientific misinformation that has permeated national discourse in recent years, and to advocate for “robustly funded” science. In particular, marchers protested proposed budget cuts by the Trump administration against the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency, among others.
The event in Boston featured Decibel Therapeutics President and CEO Steven Holtzman as a speaker. For those unable to attend or marching in other locations, a transcript of his speech in its entirety is below.
On February 7, 2017, in response to President Trump’s Executive Order on immigration issued on January 27, 2017, approximately 200 senior biotech leaders, including CEOs, company founders and venture capitalists, published a letter in Nature Biotechnology expressing our deep concern about the negative impact this order will have on medical innovation. Following a block by a US federal appeals court, the administration produced a new ban on March 6, which includes changes that remove Iraqis from the list of nationalities affected, exclude current visa holders and refugees already granted asylum, alter the ban on Syrian refugees from indefinite to temporary and implement the ban on March 16 (rather than with immediate effect). Speaking as individuals and the lead authors of that letter, we find this new Executive Order does nothing to ameliorate our originally expressed concerns. Like its predecessor, the newly issued order is deeply detrimental to America’s efforts to develop important new medicines to address serious unmet human needs. In addition it remains just as inimical to the fundamental values on which our great nation was founded.
Jeremy M Levin1, Steven H Holtzman2, John Maraganore3, Paul J Hastings4, Ron Cohen5 & Bassil I Dahiyat6
1Ovid Therapeutics Inc., New York, New York, USA. 2Decibel Therapeutics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 3Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 4OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Redwood City, California, USA. 5Acorda Therapeutics Inc., Ardsley, New York, USA. 6Xencor, Monrovia, California, USA.
Our First Rounders podcast with Steve Quake can be found here. This is his lab at Stanford, and this is Fluidigm, a micro-fluidics company he co-founded. The Nature Biotechnology paper on the sequencing of his genome can be found here, with some news coverage of the event here, and Quake’s own account in the NY Times. For more on his position with the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, go here. The Biohub has named its first recipients of funding. And here is Biohub co-head Joe DeRisi discussing the initiative.
To the Editor:
We the undersigned, founders and leaders of biotech companies, write to express our deep concern and opposition to the executive order signed by President Donald Trump on January 27, 2017, barring the entry of citizens from seven countries into the United States1.
The United States is the world’s greatest developer of medicines and new inventions to ameliorate and cure intractable diseases, a status achieved through massive investment in private and public companies, academia and R&D. Most importantly, our success has been founded on the creativity and dedication of our most precious resource—our people.
Our people include researchers, clinicians, entrepreneurs and business executives from all over the world. They are colleagues in our laboratories, management teams and boardrooms. They discover and develop therapies that drive US biomedical innovation and deliver new medicines to patients, not only in America, but also across the globe. And they start companies that drive the economic growth and employment provided by biotech. Many of our colleagues from abroad ultimately become Americans, all to the great benefit of the United States. Indeed, a study found that in 2014, 52% of the 69,000 biomedical researchers in the United States were foreign-born2.
The biopharma industry originated in America and is dominated by American companies. US companies employ tenfold more people than European companies. Over the past decade, a total of $98.4 billion was invested in US emerging therapeutic companies through venture capital, follow-on public offerings and initial public offerings. US companies spent over $138 billion on upfront payments for in-licensing assets or acquiring global R&D-stage emerging companies. Larger US biopharma companies spent $161.7 billion over the past ten years on market-stage acquisitions.
The United States has led the world in medicine production for decades, not only because of its ability to finance drug discovery, but also because, more than any other country, the United States represents opportunity regardless of borders, gender, race, sexual orientation or political cast. This has enabled our industry to attract the best talent, wherever it is found. This aspect of our industry is a core reason the United States has built its unique strength in biopharmaceuticals.
At a stroke, the new administration has compromised years of investment in this national treasure. Our colleagues who are here on visas or are in global outposts are now fearful and uncertain of their status. Scientists based in other countries and employed by our companies are afraid to come to the United States or are canceling trips. The parents and families of immigrants who live and work in the United States are reluctant to attempt to travel to and from the United States.
Though the ban from the Trump administration is aimed at seven countries, our global employees interpret the underlying message as, “America is no longer welcoming of any immigrants, whatsoever.” They fear similar orders could be issued for other countries at a moment’s notice. They fear being stigmatized and discriminated against, simply because of their religion, irrespective of the nation they come from. Several among us have heard from employees about their deportation fears, how they do not feel comfortable leaving the country on business or how they now feel cut off from their family abroad.
Every nation has the right to determine who comes across its borders. Every nation needs to be vigilant in defending itself against and hunting down terrorists. The actions taken by the Trump administration, however, were poorly conceived and implemented; they have raised deep fears and concerns across the biotech industry, in which diversity and the free flow of ideas and people have created an American powerhouse of medicine.
If this misguided policy is not reversed, America is at risk of losing its leadership position in one of its most important sectors, one that will shape the world in the twenty-first century. Indeed, it will harm an industry dominated by smaller companies and startups, the very kind of industry the administration has said it wants to support. It will slow the fight against the many diseases that afflict us, as well as carry negative economic consequences for the United States.
America must remain the world’s greatest engine of innovation, as well as the beacon of liberty it has been for more than 200 years. The two are inextricably intertwined.
(On February 2, 2017, the United States District Court Western District of Washington at Seattle issued a temporary restraining order against the executive order that suspends its enforcement nationwide. The President has stated he will seek to overturn the ruling, but the restraining order remains in force while under appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit by the Department of Justice. As of 7pm on February 6, the federal appeals court has not yet ruled3.)
Jeremy M Levin1, Steven H Holtzman2, John Maraganore3, Paul J Hastings4, Ron Cohen5, Bassil I Dahiyat6, Julian Adams7, Chris Adams8, Brett Ahrens9, Jeff Albers10, Mara G Aspinall11, James Audia12, Martin Babler13, Peter Barrett14, Zoe Barry15, Nessan Bermingham16, Stephen Bloch17, Robert I Blum18, Paul B Bolono19, Michael W Bonney20, Bruce Booth21, Daniel M Bradbury22, Steven K Brauer23, Brook Byers24, Pablo J Cagnoni25, Brian M Cali26, Isaac Ciechanover27, Chip Clark28, Michael D Clayman29, Jeff L Cleland30, Paula Cobb31, Ron Cooper32, Mark G Currie33, John Diekman34, Eric l Dobmeier35, Doug Doerfler36, Deborah Dunsire37, Matthew During38, Jens W Eckstein39, Eric Elenko40, Neil A Exter41, Jonathan J Fleming42, Gregory J Flesher43, Jean-Francois Formela44, Robert Forrester45, Cedric Francois46, Heather Franklin47, Mason W Freeman48, Leonard Patrick Gage49, Nicolas Galakatos50, James A Geraghty51, Simba Gill52, David V Goeddel53, Mark A Goldsmith54, Maxine Gowen55, Tom Graney56, David Grayzel57, Barry Greene58, Paul Grint59, J C Gutierrez-Ramos60, Tuan Ha-Ngoc61, Bill Haney62, Faheem Hasnain63, Yujiro Steve Hata64, Peter Hecht65, Rich Heyman66, Herve Hoppenot67, H Robert Horvitz68, Thomas E Hughes69, Wende S Hutton70, Annalisa Jenkins71, Rachel King72, Vanessa King73, Nina Kjellson74, Gerhard Koenig75, Scott Koenig76, Peter Kolchinsky77, Paul Laikind78, Robert (Bob) Langer79, John J Lee80, Jonathan S Leff81, Nick Leschly82, Mark Levin83, Arnold Levine84, Alan Levy85, David Liu86, Harvey F Lodish87, Uri Lopatin88, Ted W Love89, Guy Macdonald90, Gail J Maderis91, Ankit Mahadevia92, Nagesh K Mahanthappa93, Joel F Martin94, W Eddie Martucci95, James McArthur96, Corey M McCann97, Sean A McCarthy98, C Geoffrey McDonough99, John Mendlein100, Diego Miralles101, Kenneth I Moch102, Bob Moore103, Andrew G Myers104, Michael A Narachi105, Amir Nashat106, William J Newell107, Bernat Olle108, John E Osborn109, Julia C Owens110, Atul Pande111, H Stewart Parker112, Kush M Parmar113, Matthew R Patterson114, Steve M Paul115, Rob Perez116, Matthew Perry117, Cary G Pfeffer118, Mike Powell119, Dennis J Purcell120, Amit Rakhit121, Kartick Ramamoorthi122, William Rastetter123, Adrian (Ad) Rawcliffe124, Laurence E Reid125, Jason P Rhodes126, William J Rieflin127, Chad Robins128, Scott M Rocklage129, Michael Rosenblatt130, Jonathan G Rosin131, William J Rutter132, Saurabh Saha133, Camille Samuels134, Vicki L Sato135, George Scangos136, John A Scarlett137, Stuart L Schreiber138, Andrew Schwab139, Paul Sekhri140, Thomas Shenk141, Clay B Siegall142, Nick J Simon143, Nancy Simonian144, Jeff Stein145, Michael Su146, Mary T Szela147, Henri Termeer148, Nancy A Thornberry149, Martin Tolar150, Richard Ulevitch151, Akshay K Vaishnaw152, Anne VanLent153, George P Vlasuk154, Michel Vounatsos155, Samuel G Waksal156, Neil Warma157, Ryan J Watts158, Yaron Werber159, Christoph Westphal160, Wendell Wierenga161, Doug E Williams162, Lewis (Rusty) Williams163, Kleanthis G Xanthopoulos164, Daphne Zohar165 & Sandford (Sandy) Zweifach166
1Ovid Therapeutics Inc., New York, New York, USA. 2Decibel Therapeutics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 3Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 4OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Redwood City, California, USA. 5Acorda Therapeutics Inc., Ardsley, New York, USA. 6Xencor, Monrovia, California, USA. 7Clal Biotechnology Industries, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 8Cydan Development Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 9Caanan Partners, Menlo Park, California,USA.10Blueprint Medicines, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.11Health Catalysts, Tuscon, Arizona, USA. 12Constellation Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 13Principia Biopharma, South San Francisco, California, USA. 14Atlas Venture, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 15ZappRx, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 16Intellia Therapeutics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 17Caanan Partners, Westport, Connecticut, USA. 18Cytokinetics, Inc., South San Francisco, California, USA. 19Wave Life Sciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 20Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 21Atlas Venture, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 22Amylin Pharmaceuticals, San Diego, California, USA. 23Salus Discovery LLC, San Diego, California, USA. 24Investor, Menlo Park, California, USA. 25Tizona Therapeutics, Inc., South San Francisco, California, USA. 26Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 27Atara Bio, South San Francisco, California, USA. 28Genocea Biosciences, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 29Flexion Therapeutics, Burlington, Massachusetts, USA. 30Graybug Vision, Redwood City, California, USA. 31Decibel Therapeutics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 32Albireo Pharma Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 33Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 345AM Ventures, San Francisco, California, USA. 35Seattle Genetics, Bothell, Washington, USA. 36MaxCyte, Inc., Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. 37Southern Cross Biotech Consulting, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA. 38Ovid Therapeutics Inc., New York, New York, USA. 39SR One, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, USA. 40PureTech Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 41Third Rock Ventures, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 42Q-State Biosciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 43OticPharma Inc., Irvine, California, USA. 44Atlas Venture, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 45Verastem Inc., Needham, Massachusetts, USA. 46Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Crestwood, Kentucky, USA. 47Blaze Bioscience Inc., Seattle, Washington, USA. 485AM Ventures, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.49Tetraphase, Watertown, Massachusetts, USA. 50Clarus, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 51Juniper Pharmaceuticals, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 52Evelo Biosciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 53The Column Group, San Francisco, California, USA. 54Revolution Medicines, Inc., Redwood City, California, USA. 55Trevena Inc., King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, USA.56 Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 57Atlas Venture, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 58Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 59Regulus Therapeutics, San Diego, California, USA. 60Synlogic, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 61KEW, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 62Dragonfly Therapeutics, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 63FSG Biotech, San Diego, California, USA. 64IDEAYA Biosciences, South San Francisco, California, USA. 65Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 66Metacrine, Inc., San Diego, California, USA. 67Incyte, Wilmington, Delaware, USA. 68Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 69Zafgen, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 70Caanan Partners, Menlo Park, California, USA. 71Dimension Therapeutics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 72GlycoMimetics, Inc., Rockville, Maryland, USA. 73Luc Therapeutics, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 74Caanan Partners, Menlo Park, California, USA. 75Quartet Medicine, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 76MacroGenics, Inc., Rockville, Maryland, USA. 77RA Capital Management, LLC, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 78ViaCyte, Inc., San Diego, California, USA. 79Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 80Decibel Therapeutics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 81Deerfield Management, New York, New York, USA. 82Bluebird Bio, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 83Third Rock Ventures, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 84Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. 85Chrono Therapeutics, Hayward, California, USA. 86Editas Medicine, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 87Whitehead Institute MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 88Assembly Biosciences, Carmel, Indiana, USA. 89Global Blood Therapeutics, South San Francisco, California, USA. 90Tetraphase, Watertown, Massachusetts, USA. 91Antiva Biosciences, Inc., South San Francisco, California, USA. 92Spero Therapeutics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 93Scholar Rock, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 94Dauntless Pharmaceuticals, Inc., San Diego, California, USA. 95Akili Interactive, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 96Imara, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 97Pear Therapeutics, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 98CytomX, South San Francisco, California, USA. 99Sobi, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA.100aTyr Pharma, San Diego, California, USA. 101Adaptive Biotechnologies, Seattle, Washington, USA. 102Cognition Therapeutics, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. 103Alta Partners, San Francisco, California, USA. 104Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 105Orexigen Therapeutics, La Jolla, California, USA. 106Polaris Partners, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 107Sutro Biopharma, Inc., South San Francisco, California, USA. 108Vedanta Biosciences, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 109Egalet, Wayne, Pannsylvania, USA. 110Millendo Therapeutics, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. 111Verity BioConsulting, San Diego, California, USA. 112Parker BioConsulting, Seattle, Washington, USA. 1135AM Ventures, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 114Audentes Therapeutics, Inc., San Francisco, California, USA. 115Voyager Therapeutics, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 116Life Science Cares, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 117BVF Partners, LP, San Francisco, California, USA. 118Third Rock Ventures, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 119Sofinnova Ventures, Menlo Park, California, USA. 120Aisling Capital LLC, New York, New York, USA. 121Ovid Therapeutics Inc., New York, New York, USA. 122Encoded Genomics, South San Francisco, California, USA. 123Neurocrine Biosciences Inc., San Diego, California, USA. 124Adaptimmune, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. 125Warp Drive Bio, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 126Atlas Venture, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 127NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., South San Francisco, California, USA. 128Adaptive Biotechnologies, Seattle, Washington, USA. 1295AM Ventures, San Francisco, California, USA. 130Flagship Pioneering, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 131Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 132Synergenics, LLC, San Francisco, California, USA. 133Delinia, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 134Venrock, Palo Alto, California, USA. 135Harvard Business School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 136Vir Bio, San Francisco, California, USA. 137Geron Corporation, Menlo Park, California, USA. 138Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 1395AM Ventures, San Francisco, California, USA. 140Lycera Corporation, New York, New York, USA. 141Lewis Thomas Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. 142Seattle Genetics, Inc., Bothell, Washington, USA. 143Clarus Ventures LLC, South San Francisco, California, USA. 144Syros Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 145Cidara Therapeutics, San Diego, California, USA. 146Decibel Therapeutics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 147Novelion Therapeutics, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. 148Formerly of Genzyme, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.149Kallyope, New York, New York, USA. 150Alzheon, Framingham, Massachusetts, USA. 1515AM Ventures, La Jolla, California, USA. 152Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 153AMV Advisors, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. 154Navitor Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 155Biogen, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.156MeiraGTx, New York, New York, USA.157Opexa Therapeutics, Inc., The Woodlands, Texas, USA. 158Denali Therapeutics, Inc., South San Francisco, California, USA. 159Ovid Therapeutics, Inc., New York, New York, USA. 160Flex Pharma, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 161Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, San Diego, California, USA. 162Codiak BioSciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 163Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc., South San Francisco, California, USA. 164Cerus, La Jolla, California, USA. 165PureTech Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 166Nuvelution Pharmaceuticals, Inc., South San Francisco, California, USA.
PDF of letter: US immigration order strikes against biotech
The First Rounders podcast with Anu Acharya can be found here. She is founder and CEO of Mapmygenome, and formerly ran Ocimum. She wrote about mentorship here, and here she is talking at an independent TED event. She wrote a piece for our Building a Business section in Nature Biotechnology, the PDF of which is here. And finally, she wrote about the passing of her father here.
Brady Huggett
Source: Travis Huggett
The picture above is of Tim Ellis, a source for our recent feature article on drug pricing, called America’s Drug Problem. He’s a multiple sclerosis (MS) sufferer. Below is one of Jill, a second source; she has lupus. Together, these two show how the rising costs of drugs can affect American patients, particularly those with a chronic illness.
Tim’s MS diagnosis changed the way he viewed the world. He told me that it isn’t just the “good things that define you or your life,” but rather the obstacles that sometimes “define you in bigger ways.” He credits his MS diagnosis for providing perspective and, in an odd way, making him a better person, but that does not mean an MS diagnosis is any less frightening.
“I never stop thinking of what the future is,” he said. “Because I know I could end up in a wheelchair, and all of a sudden I regress. It happens. I’m not saying it’s going to happen – I don’t think it will. But I think about that stuff way more than I ever did before.”
With insurance his expensive MS drug, Tecfidera (dimethyl fumarate), costs him a $35 monthly co-pay. The system has worked for Tim. Yet without insurance his preferred drug (Tecfidera has been more effective than Copaxone on his disease) would blow open his finances, and so he’s forever nervous some insurer will take it away.
Source: Travis Huggett
Jill’s story is more painful in comparison. In America, we’re told that if you have insurance, you’ll be fine. Insurance is your safety net against financial hardship when faced with a serious illness. Yet Jill had insurance. She also had a full-time job and strong family support, and still she went through one bankruptcy and again finds herself on unstable ground. The healthcare system has failed this person, and there are plenty more like her.
Before the feature published, I emailed Jill to check the accuracy of her narrative one more time. I sent her my constructed timeline of her severe lupus episodes, her bankruptcy filing, disability application and appeals, her Medicaid plans for dealing with end of COBRA coverage, and her recent filing for federal assistance through food stamps. I asked her if I’d relayed it all correctly.
Yes, she emailed back, that’s correct. And then, almost as an afterthought, she typed, “It’s a circle of hell.”
Their stories are told in more detail in America’s Drug Problem, and the article lays out all the moving parts plaguing the manufacturer-to-consumer drug pathway. It can be found here.
Nancy J. Kelley
Click here for the First Rounders podcast with Nancy Kelley. For more on her consultancy, go here. A Frontline interview with Nancy’s college friend (and Black Panther Party member) Kathleen Cleaver can be read here. A New York Times blog post on the East River Science Park’s first tenant is here. We published an article on the New York Genome Center, and Nancy, here. And here is a BuzzFeed article on the Genome Project-Write (side note: the author of that article, Nidhi Subbaraman, was once a Nature Biotech intern). The Science paper on Genome Project-Write is here.
The First Rounders podcast with David Baltimore is located here. Here is his lab page at Caltech. Find The New York Times article on his winning the Nobel prize at this link. His page on the Nobel site is here. The New Yorker article covering the charges against the Thereza Imanishi-Kari paper, which we discussed on the podcast, is here (subscription required for full article, though someone has scanned in the PDF). A Nature article on the Asilomar conference found at this link. An interview on PBS concerning AIDS research is here.
Northwest corner of Union Square, San Francisco.
The annual JP Morgan healthcare conference is held every January in the cramped halls of the Westin St. Francis hotel on the edge of Union Square, here in San Francisco. Because the conference is selective in its attendees anyway, and because the number of registrants is constrained by walls of the Westin, for the duration of the conference a massive overflow of biotech investors, executives and personnel conduct a torrid business in the lobbies and hotel rooms surrounding Union Square. This sideshow has swelled in recent years to even include smaller conferences running concurrently.
So perhaps I was reminded of JP Morgan today simply because the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) convention is held in the same city this year, with scores of biotech people walking the same sidewalks, show badges swinging from necks like pendulums. And, similar to attending JP Morgan, I began my day with a meeting in a hotel restaurant just up the hill from Union Square, and spent a portion of my afternoon speaking with small phalanx of Thai delegates in a ballroom at the InterContinental hotel.
Ajarin Pattanapanchai, the Deputy Secretary General of Thailand Board of Investment, took me through a pitch for drawing foreign biotech investment to her country. It included the familiar exemptions on foreign income tax for R&D activity/manufacturing of biopharmaceutical agents, as well as permissions to bring along expatriates to the country, and own land in Thailand.
But Thailand offers a few other interesting things. Its location, for instance, places it right between the burgeoning pharmaceutical markets of India and China. It is a top medical tourism destination for everything from cancer treatment to laser eye surgery to “weight loss surgeries,” due to Thailand’s more than 50,000 “well-trained physicians” and more than 1,300 hospitals, according to promotional material.
It is a rising destination for running clinical trials, says Sakarindr Bhumiratana, president of King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi. A trial in Thailand could save a company 30-40%, he says, because of the lower pay nurses and doctors receive in Thailand versus the US, and the currency exchange.
Thailand also has drawbacks it needs to address. First, though Thailand has seen an increase of corporate venture arms, such as ones wielded by the Siam Cement Group and Crown Property Bureau, it still lacks venture capital for company creation – a complaint heard from life science sectors the world over, including those seeking to start biotechs in the US. And while the Thailand Center of Excellence for Life Sciences (TCELS) provides consultations on commercialization, there are no pharma headquarters in Thailand, and the supporting bioeconomy, so crucial to areas like San Francisco and Cambridge, Massachusetts, is missing.
We spent some time discussing entrepreneurism (also on the rise in Thailand), and when I got up to leave, the ballroom was just filling with attendees for a full afternoon of presentations breaking down Thai investment and collaboration opportunities. Thailand also has a pavilion in Moscone (booth 7301 in the West hall), and I suppose I could have gathered all this information there, but it feels like getting the most out of BIO this year means spending time outside the convention center.