Category: Uncategorized

GENETIC ANALYSIS can be matched with preventative treatment in breast cancer. This is the future: personalized medicine matching your tumor genetics with the treatment most likely to work, in a test tube, so you are not the test tube. http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2013-rst/7519.html View in LinkedIn

ORPHAN DESIGNATION for diagnostic tests now blocked by composition of matter gene patents, and having to rely on weaker use patents, has been proposed by Dr Ken Kangatharon here at LI. This is a BRILLIANT solution to the recent Supreme Court decision not to allow patents on genes. This would permit the considerable investment in developing an innovator test to be rewarded, and make diagnostics look like brand and generic Pharma markets. Let's hope a clever politician can go with this idea. View in LinkedIn

PUBLIC SPEAKING: a kind and wise set of observations. A must-read. http://lnkd.in/-Qc6fp View in LinkedIn

THE JUNIOR STOCK MARKETS have some advantages over the major boards. The London AIM and the Madrid MAB exchanges are less demanding of their companies, do not tend to attract the same low-end activity that NASDAQ does, and yet gives liquidity and access to larger capital pools for young companies. There are lots of junior exchanges worldwide, such as Japan, Taiwan, Australia, to name a few. They all are in much less litigious environments than the US. Litigation is killing the US. If you are thinking of an IPO, study the junior exchanges first. http://lnkd.in/Mc6cNg View in LinkedIn

US PUBLIC COMPANIES operate in a very hostile and Machiavellian environment. I have served on two NASDAQ listed boards, one for 14 years, and have seen all the dirty dealings of this very hostile environment, from disreputable law firms, sleazy takeover artists, greedy service providers, heavy-handed regulatory agencies, and analysts on some mind-altering drugs, to name but a few. Young entrepreneurs, I entreat you to know that this is not for you. If you do go here, find professional management and go back to the fun stuff. http://lnkd.in/Mc6cNg View in LinkedIn

IPO WINDOWS OPEN and we all get excited because it means that VCs will once again swim into the sector, because of a higher liquidity probability. But between costly and meaningless Sarbanes-Oxley compliance requirements, analyst timeframes of quarter by quartet, shareholder class action lawsuits, activist shareholders and hostile bids, there is very little to recommend about being a public company. It skews management focus from long-term to short-term, distracts management with tiresome housekeeping chores, and gives secrets to competitors. This is a very undesirable path to liquidity. http://lnkd.in/Mc6cNg View in LinkedIn

HOSTILE BIDS for public companies, like the Royalty Pharma bid for Élan, get ugly quickly, and resemble activist shareholder tactics by voting against management initiatives, and then trying to replace the board to wrest control away from the owner. In the end, if successful, most dismember the acquired company and sell off the parts. These scrapyard dog tactics are rather uniquely American and are powered by the same type of bottom fishing class action lawyers who plague public companies. This is the huge downside of the IPO path to VC liquidity and why Dell buys back stock for billions. http://lnkd.in/Mc6cNg View in LinkedIn

CLINICAL TRIAL design advice that is a must-read if you are involved in this area. http://lnkd.in/2HnbAq View in LinkedIn

THOUGHTFUL SUMMARY OF VS recent history and possible solutions for getting out of the low performance jam that they are in. What is clear is that the old VC model is having to change. It is ironic that many of the older guard of gatekeepers of innovation, as they were for a long spell, are reluctant to innovate themselves. That said, there is a new generation of younger VCs who are creative and innovative. http://lnkd.in/SmeNgA View in LinkedIn

BREATH SENSOR for acetone being developed for diabetes screening. Already similar technology is being developed to replicate the suggestion that animals can smell diseases, such as cancer, in humans probably though the volatile organics in breath and skin scents. http://lnkd.in/wj2sd7 View in LinkedIn