Category: Uncategorized

INTELLIGENT DRUGS are coming, especially from nano plus drug. View in LinkedIn

EUROPEAN TECH companies are greatly undervalued and have not been combed through and over-shopped like those in the US. The valuation gap is significant. Investors looking for good deals would be smart to investigate these opportunities. It is also true that most are the tangible fruits of a very significant investment by the EU and member countries into research that led to the IP at the heart of these companies. View in LinkedIn

THE END OF BLOOD DRIVES? Blood stem cells grown in vitro. View in LinkedIn

GENE PATENT REPORT affirms the important role that IP played in innovating commercial products, more in the past than now, and importantly, including use not composition of matter patents. I have licensed dozens of these patents during my career. I can absolutely affirm that IP was critical for securing VC funding and for creating a leading diagnostic venture. Unfortunately, players like Myriad pushed the limits so blatantly that the whole debate has been skewed. The compromise may be use patents which even purists should have no objection to, unless they fail to grasp Biz 101. http://lnkd.in/4eCD5J View in LinkedIn

EU STIMULUS SPENDING plans for Smart Specialization Strategies is a monumental € 376 Bn. The EC has about 100 Bioregions that have been created by public money. They have been invited to send proposals to Brussels for consideration. This represents an historic Revolution in European thinking about stimulus and the economic promise of technology and science. Bold and decisive, this plan potentially lays the foundation for a Knowledge Economy of scale. View in LinkedIn

GENERIC DRUG substitution should be a no-brainer when the innovator patent has expired and there is a cheaper generic launched. Brand Pharma companies have long enjoyed, and in cases actively contributed to, the urban myth that the generic is somehow inferior. The FDA has a stringent process for generic drug approval and this debate is groundless. Unless you happen to be the innovator. http://lnkd.in/wkg7xn View in LinkedIn

FDA's moves towards regulating Lab Developed Tests (LDT) or reference labs, currently regulated under CLIA, is a chilling thought, and especially at a time when the FDA is famously underfunded and understaffed, barely able to keep up with its colossal workload. CLIA regulation has worked smoothly for decades, and there have been scant scandals or evidence of malfunction in the system. A really bad idea. http://lnkd.in/Y93yRa View in LinkedIn

FRAUD IN SCIENCE is relatively rare but especially troublesome when it comes to data on medicines. More commonly it relates to scientific publications aimed at securing academic tenure. On occasion, it relates to faking data to get investors. I have been privy to two cases if the latter type. In one case, Dr Glenn Elion of Chatham MA, nephew of the Nobel prizewinner, faked the cloning of the spider silk gene in a scheme to defraud friends and family out of millions for his company, which turned out to be a front for money laundering and making counterfeit currency. He went to jail. http://lnkd.in/wTv6ww View in LinkedIn

GOVERNMENTAL VCs whose dedicated mission is to fund early stage Biopharma, and fill the yawing void that VCs have left in this sector is an idea whose time has come due. Every country can shave off some stimulus money for this important stimulus of one of the greatest economic engines in recent history. View in LinkedIn

SBIR grants and game-changing new rules. About time! http://mobile.businessweek.com/articles/2013-06-14/game-changing-new-rules-for-innovation-grants-from-the-feds View in LinkedIn