1. Adapting to Change, an Interview with Steve Burrill
Renown industry pundit Steve Burrill is publishing his annual state of the biotechnology industry report entitled “Biotech 2010 Life Sciences: Adapting for Success”. In this interview Steve Burrill shares with John Mohr some of the insights from this new report. Steve explains that everything has changed in the past 18 months: investors are less interested in company with less than $1bn market cap, and the regulatory and reimbursement authorities are no longer favoring “one size fits all” drugs. In the past 18 months, we’ve seen dramatic restructuring and refocusing of companies, and we are increasingly looking for ways to identify the patients with who our drugs will work.
2. No Real Healthcare Reform, Only Insurance Reform
How will Obama’s healthcare reform impact the fundamentals of the biotech industry? Steve Burrill argues we have a sickness care system, not a healthcare system; and that the debate in Washington is not about how we fix this dysfunctional system, but how we get more people in and pay for it. There is some industry concern around biosimilars and the effect they will ultimately have on innovation. Additionally, companies will have to demonstrate they create more value and reduction in cost in order to get paid by the buyers (Medicare and Medicaid).
3. Financing Biotech in 2010
Biotech raised more money in 2009 than it ever did before, despite the turmoil in capital markets, explains Steve Burrill. Why, you might ask? Because we had to in order to survive. Companies need cash and Pharma needs a pipeline. Steve expects we will raise a lot more money in 2010 for the same reasons. There are still thousands of diseases in the world that are poorly treated, and plenty of capital in the markets for good things. IPOs have turned out to be extremely expensive for companies. Steve predicts 15 IPOs this year in the US, that have mitigated technology, regulatory, and reimbursement risk.
4. From Personalized Medicine to Preemptive Medicine
We have technology today that can help us understand the differences that are hardwired within us: what drugs will work for each patient, what diseases we are at risk of getting, and how to prevent them. Steve Burrill explains we are moving from a “one size fits all” to personalized medicine, to predictive medicine, to a preemptive medicine. Our definitions for diseases are changing. With personalized medicine we’ll have more patients that are responsive to treatments in markets that are just as large. Investors will be looking for diagnostic companies, and therapeutic companies that have access to diagnostics to get through regulators and reimbursement.
5. Stem Cells and Other Promising New Technologies
Stem Cell research has been decriminalized, and funding has loosened up, but there has been a brain-drain, explains Steve Burrill. We are still doing a lot of science, we are not quite at the product level, and regulators are still a little uncomfortable. But there is no question we will live in a world of regenerative medicine, and the companies that are developing these treatments will be fabulous. We are also seeing enormous interest in vaccines, algorithms for biomarkers, and other technologies that will get us to more personalized and preemptive treatments.
6. FAST Word Association Game, with Steve Burrill
Steve Burrill share his spontaneous reaction to key buzz-words, in this classic game presented here by John Mohr and introduced by Needham’s Mark Monane. The day’s words are : ‘Consolidation’ ‘Biosimilars’ ‘Innovation’ ‘China’ ‘FDA’ ‘Big Pharma’ ‘Globalization’ ‘Carl Icahn’.
This interview was conducted at the NASDAQ Marketsite, on March 11th, 2010, in New York City.
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