Cynthia Robbins-Roth and the Biotechnology Industry

4. Robert Langer, a faculty member at MIT 's prestigious Whitehead Institute, is mentioned in the article. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of In Vivo Therapeutics and has a long list of accomplishments. As a faculty member should he or others who are full time faculty members at any university or college have constraints on their contributions to and activity with biotechnology companies? How might you design a fair strategic plan that would allow university research faculty to translate their work into new medical devices or practices that have both commercial and medical potential?

The barrier to enter Biotechnology industry is high. The first barrier is the extensive requirements in funding coming from heavy expenditures in R&D, along with the risk of little to no returns or even heavy losses if the drug fails to reach the market. Regulatory environment partly contributes to the barrier as the new drug approval process can be time-consuming with relatively 89% of failure to pass through. The second barrier is specialization. Companies with knowledge in obscure diseases will enjoy low threat of new entrant for there are few experts in the field.

Improvements in health care and life sciences are an important source of gains in health and longevity globally. The development of innovative pharmaceutical products plays a critical role in ensuring these continued gains. To encourage the continued development of new drugs, economic incentives are essential. These incentives are principally provided through direct and indirect government funding, intellectual property laws, and other policies that favor innovation. Without such incentives, private corporations, which bring to market the vast majority of new drugs, would be less able to assume the risks and costs necessary to continue their research and development (R&D). In the United States, government action has focused on creating the environment that would best encourage further innovation and yield a constant flow of new and innovative medicines to the market. The goal has been to ensure that consumers would benefit both from technological breakthroughs and the competition that further innovation generates. The United States also relies on a strong generic pharmaceutical industry to create added competitive pressure to lower drug prices. Recent action by the Administration and Congress has accelerated the flow of generic medicines to the market for precisely that reason. By contrast, in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and

The author of this article, Francis Fukuyama, is fearful that biotechnology will transform human nature as it did in Brave New World. Biotechnology will shift us into

In this paper I am writing on the Ventria Bioscience and the Controversy over Plant-Made Medicines Case. Ventria Bioscience is a company that is trying to commercialize pharmaceuticals made from genetically modified plants. While Ventria is gaining opposition from regulators, activist, and environmentalist; they could succeed if they use their relevant stakeholders and specific strategies, information, financial incentive, constituency building, to influence regulators.

-Use a joint venture with a biotechnology company to complete the testing and commercialization. (This was the option of Biopart. Abgenix would bear moderate risk but split profits.)

There are several rewards to consider with expansion of Biocon. Currently in India, there is a growing market for contract research organization and the growth of Biocon falls right within this opportunity. The growth is expected to last for more than few years with a rate that looks promising. Clinigene is expected to reap revenues much higher than the current Biocon and Syngene combined (Kalegaonkar A., Nov 4, 2008). It will take clinical studies to a higher level with better options in terms of drug manufacturing. With other countries ready to outsource the service of clinical studies, Clinigene’s future looks bright.

Nucleon is a small biotechnology start-up company focused on developing biotechnological pharmaceutical products based on a class of proteins known as cell regulating factors. The company has been in the market for five years, and currently, they are in the process of human trials for their first potential product, “cell regulating protein-1” (CRP-1). Overcoming these phases, Nucleon has to decide among several alternatives on producing CRP-1. Knowing that the process involved a tremendous amount of time and money, Nucleon has to choose the right decision for their long-term survival in the intensively competitive and high-stakes drug industry.

Students should see that the risks of the biotech business are driving all of MoGen’s financial decisions: debt policy, dividend policy, and share repurchase program. Debt is relatively low because higher debt levels would result in debt rating decreases and therefore higher interest rates. Similarly, the company chooses to pay no dividends because of the risk of being forced to cut the dividend during the difficult times that invariably arise in a biotech business. Students should realize that a share repurchase program is a very good match for a biotech company like MoGen. The company can distribute cash to its shareholders when profits allow, but without making an explicit (debt) or implicit (dividends) promise to the market.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYSilicon Valley Medical Technologies (SIVMED) was founded as a research and development firm. In the beginning, SIVMED performed its own basic research, obtained patents on promising technologies, and then either sold or licensed the technologies to other firms which marketed the products. The firm has since then grown and is now contracted to perform research and testing for larger genetic engineering firms, biotechnology firms, the US government, and is now widely recognized as the leader in an emerging growth industry. SIVMED's founders were relatively wealthy individuals when they started company, and they committed a great deal of their own funds to the venture. Their personal funds, however, were soon exhausted by the

Located in South San Francisco, CA, Genentech was started in 1976 by a biochemist Dr. Herbert Boyer and Robert A. Swanson. From 1995-2009 Arthur Levinson had become the CEO of Genentech; presently it is Ian T. Clark. Genentech is a leading biotechnology company, using human genetic information to discover, develop, manufacture and commercialize medicines to treat people with serious or life-threatening medical conditions (2014). Biotechnology is the technology based on the science of cellular and biomolecular processes to develop technologies and products that help improve peoples’ lives and the health of our environment. How biotechnology uses cellular and biomolecular processes are by using molecular mechanisms by which genetic and

The biotech firm Amgen Inc. gives much attention and time to the planning process. Because the outcomes for a company like Amgen are often very unsure and many employees are quite sceptical about the use of such a planning, the main issue can be described as follows:

In order to decide on the R&D portfolio, an objective quantitative analysis might not be suitable considering the high levels of uncertainities and consequently the risks involved in pharmaceutical research projects. It is important to have a qualitative analysis of the situation as a whole that includes Vertex’s own financial position, strategic implications, a quantitative analysis of its Portfolios with realistic estimations and a risk analysis of the portfolios.

The book From Alchemy to IPO: the business of Biotechnology (2001) was a wonderful read. Although a little outdated (before the 2008 financial crisis), Cynthia Robbins-Roth was able to capture the thrill of starting the first biotech companies, the struggle to keep the companies afloat during down markets, as well as the elation of success when a company succeeds where others failed. I was astounded that any new company could survive the decade long march to putting their first product on the market, but Robbins-Roth provided direct quotations from the major investors that stuck with the market when most other investors had pulled out. These quotes, by the end of the book, gave me a much better understanding not only of the biotech industry but also the mentality of the major investors in the field. Although the sector is teeming with risky investments, if you educate yourself about the companies and understand the science involved, and be ready for the long-haul it is possible to lower your risk to reasonable levels.

     When I first started this paper I would have to admit that I was pretty green in the field of Biotechnology, I had a brief understanding but nothing near an in depth understanding of the field. So when I first started looking for a success story, I tied my views on successful innovation in the areas that I am familiar with to the biotech field. The major theme that emerged was that successful innovation equals a product that produces quality profits for a company. After further research on the success of innovation, you do realize that profits may be the end goal of the company but success stems from a total company wide effort, that may start many years before a single cent of