The Big Red Biotech Blog

Maybe It's Just Me

When looking at all the fines that Big Pharma is absorbing -- primarily for violations of selling and marketing regulations around the world -- did you ever find yourself saying "ho-hum" business as usual.  Especially when the fines involved are much less than $1 B!  I do.

Just this week Pharmalot reported fines for Lilly ($29 M), Sanofi ($109 M) and Amgen ($762 M).  The Amgen is big enough for me to take more notice but the others -- "ho-hum".  That's kind of sad.

These pale next to some of the multi-billion dollar settlements we've seen in the past two years as well.

Posted by Bruce Lehr Dec 20th 2012.

Can a Young Biotech Go Long?

YES! That's the answer given by Katrine Bosley, former CEO of Avila Therapeutics, in a piece in today's Xconomy.

I liked her whole perspective in the piece.  She argues that if a company's management focuses on creating value -- then they will have the chance to grow into a fully integrated pharmaceutical company (FIPCO) or they may also be offered opportunities for other types of deals including being acquired.  The key is to focus on the value creation first -- so you will have something tangible to consider in making a 'go long" or M&A decision. 

If you do create value, you could have the chance to become an Ironwood, Aveo, Regeneron, or Onyx Pharmaceuticals. Or you coudl get a good purchase offer from a big pharma partner that is a good fit like those realized by Plexxikon, Adnexus, Avila, Intellikine, or Calistoga. 

Either way you can be successful in bringing new medicines to market and pleasing your investors.

Posted by Bruce Lehr Dec 20th

 

ADCs Prominent in Celgene-Sutro Deal

Sutro Biopharma and Celgene struck a deal that could be worth as much as $500 M plus royalties to Sutro if milestones are met.  Celgene will gain access to Sutro technology that enables it to make biologicals by  a cell free protein synthesis approach.  Sutro will make drugs from Celgenes pipeline including both bi-specific Abs and ADCs to two undisclosed targets. Sutro will get a "substantial [undisclosed]" cash upfront and Celgene will make an equity investment and provide R&D funding. 

The Sutro ADC technology is considered to be next generation compared to that of leaders Seattle Genetics and ImmunoGen.  Mainly, the Sutro technology can incorporate non-natural amino acids in specific sites to allow it to make single species ADCs by conjugation of linker and payload at the site. Sutro can also identify the optimal sites in antibodies to make these site specific insertions. This leads to more controlled molecules and shorter timelines in development.

Sutro has been on a bit of a roll with other development deals with the likes of Pfizer.  They also have from venture investments from Lilly and Amgen venture groups among others. I like to see ADCs becoming more successful in the market and look forward to more exploitation of this technology. See Xconomy and Fierce Biotech.

Posted by Bruce Lehr Dec 18th 2012.