Category: Uncategorized

NEAR KAGOSHIMA IN JAPAN IS THE KAMIKAZI MUSEUM, which I visited a few days ago. In this somber place are the letters and personal stories of over 1,000 teenage pilots who died for a cause they were told to believe in. They had wives, children, mothers, and faced certain death. Their last letters were poignant: regrets about not showing enough love, sadness on leaving, joy to be serving, and a strong sense of an afterlife and being present after death. It was deeply moving, and I left feeling very sad for their brave losses. View in LinkedIn

THE CALIFORNIA ECONOMIC BOOM AND VC MONEY DISCONNECT. Shopping bags everywhere from throngs of tourists in San Francisco, record stock market, over-ask bids on houses (including Mark Zuckerman paying 14 M USD for a 4 M home!); but I have met with SME CEOs who have been unable to raise capital. Most memorable was a Stanford microchip diagnostics company with stellar technology, top experts, 19 patents, who have been flat out of luck trying to raise Series A. They are asking me for help accessing overseas partners. There is a deceptive economic boom in California. View in LinkedIn

A GIGANTIC STUDY OF DISEASE GENES AND HUMAN MIGRATION. This impressive study is an example of adaptation and acquisition of not so good genetic traits. Data mining this is likely to yield valuable clues to disease genes. http://lnkd.in/J5JXRB View in LinkedIn

ENTREPRENEURS HELP ACTIVATE PATIENTS to help fight their own disease by managing genomics information and accessing patient portals with reliable data on drug choices. Combine this with the fact that any steps towards personalized medicine will inevitably lead to the question -- what do we do with this data? And the answer is a game changer in medicine -- preventative not reactive medicine. . Put the two together, and the trajectory is a new proactive and collaborative medical future. http://lnkd.in/WUEf5q View in LinkedIn

INDUSTRY GROUPS HELP BRIDGE EARLY FUNDING GAP IN BIOPHARMA. View in LinkedIn

IVAX, WATSON (ACTIVIS), AND IMPAX are fully integrated specialty pharmaceutical companies founded by the legendary Taiwanese entrepreneurs Dr Charlie Hsiao and Dr Allen Chao. These are likely to be some of the last examples of successful FIPCO pharma companies in the US, as the universe of independent mid-sized companies shrinks through M&As, and the kind of giant funding no longer exists. I attended a funding event for Impax in Taiwan, where around a dining table a nod signified a huge traunch of capital. "Remember, Charlie, we know where your family lives" was the whispered collateral. View in LinkedIn

AFTER EXUBRA'S CATASTROPHIC FAIURE (INHALED INSULIN IN A BONG), even companies with POC for alternative dose routes such as nasal administration (I know of at least two) do not dare go near that graveyard. This is a great shame for diabetics. View in LinkedIn

THE US GENERICS INDUSTRY HAS SAVED CONSUMERS ONE TRILLION USD IN TEN YEARS (Generic Pharmaceutical Association study with IMS Health 2012). Similar savings are predicted for generic biologicals. In 1984 the Hatch-Waxman Act opened the doors for the modern generics industry by creating incentives for generic drug makers. At that time it was estimated that 10 year savings might be one billion, but by 1994 it was ~10 billion USD. Since then, those savings have grown exponentially. Many of the early innovators of the industry are now dead, but they have left a phenomenal legacy. View in LinkedIn

TEMPORARY LIVER BIOREACTOR WHILE AWAITING LIVER TRANSPLANT. View in LinkedIn

DRUG DEVELOPERS SHOULD KILL MOLECULES. I once knew an entrepreneur who was very smart and developed an important synthetic enzyme. This enzyme was in the oxidative stress pathway, and animal model after animal model yielded positive data. He was passionate about the molecule and grew irrationally attached to it. Even as the IP was fading, and all attempts to fund it had failed, he still could not do what drug developers have to do every day: kill the molecule. Beware the zealot who falls in love with his own work. View in LinkedIn