Dec 7, 2012

Back in January, Cambridge, MA, cancer therapeutic developer Verastem ($VSTM) made its initial public offering (IPO) and raised $55M in the process.  It was not a monumental IPO success by biopharma standards, but what made the event noteworthy was that Verastem hadn’t yet filed an IND for its lead drug candidate, the first step in the FDA regulatory process...

Feb 8, 2012

Most pharmaceutical biotechnology companies get their start through venture capital (VC) funding and years of research & development to move their promising technology into (and sometimes even through) clinical trials. Such success is often met with a lucrative partnering/licensing deal or in some cases a buy-out or merger and a payday for investors. But at...

Feb 1, 2011

Clovis Oncology raised a $145 million Series A round in 2009 with exactly zero programs in development. How was this possible? Clovis has an impressively experienced founding team, who investors believe will replicate past success for a lucrative exit. Clovis is obviously an exceptional case, but for many investors the leadership team of an entrepreneurial...

Nov 7, 2010

The cost of developing a new drug is an often quoted, but rarely consistent, statistic.  Cited amounts range from hundreds of millions to several billion dollars.  It all depends on sectors, time frames and specific associated costs, but the bottom line is that the number is astronomical.  More than a few people have weighed in to suggest policy changes or...

Oct 6, 2010

In mid-2009, as a novel influenza virus swarmed across the planet with infections arising in more than seventy countries, the World Health Organization declared that a Phase 6[i] global pandemic was underway.  Derived from swine, the H1N1 influenza spreads much like seasonal flu but has an antigenic profile largely unrecognized by existing antibodies.  A year...