Fireworks At BIO 2014 San Diego
By Louis Garguilo, Chief Editor, Outsourced Pharma
Aboard USS Midway, San Diego Bay – The late evening sky west of the ship’s deck lights up with fireworks feting the assembled attendees and honorary of the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s 21st annual international conference and exhibition. Bright lights rise meteorically and explode in an array of color and excitement, illustrating visually the enthusiasm and energy of the biotechnology industry gathered on board, and by extension around the world.
As with all such displays, though, too suddenly the colored lights descend and leave the stars as the only flickering points in the sky. To confuse the fireworks with the stars is a mistake in understanding flash and sustainability. “Reach for the stars,” it is said, but don’t expect to get there by riding on pyrotechnics.
During the week at the nearby San Diego Convention Center, because of the strong positive energy (and clever marketing), it is indeed important to keep an open but discerning mind. Varied combinations of geography and organizations (e.g., countries, regions, cities, states) all claim some superiority that the biotechnology industry must take note of (or be left behind). Every shape of academic and scientific investigator and entrepreneur, business investor, bio-agro-green-technologist is there discussing what can and needs to be accomplished. So are small, specialty, medium and big pharma, many with encouraging presentations for the industry and patients. The contract research and development providers looking to lend a hand are assembled with more and better services. (And we media types are there, of course.)
According to BIO, this year’s event drew 15,667 industry leaders, including nearly 2,500 CEO’s, from 50 states and 70 countries. The BIO Business Forum hosted over 29,000 scheduled one-on-one partnering meetings between more than 3,100 companies. There were 192 company presentations. The BIO exhibition housed more than 1,800 exhibitors, including 55 state and international pavilions.
Hillary Clinton was there. Sir Richard Branson skydived into the convention for a speech. (Actually, it is rumored he arrived in a more conventional way: Virgin Air and taxi.) According to the sponsors, this annual event is “where the global biotech community meets to fulfill the promise of biotechnology through healing, fueling, and feeding the world.” The top 10 largest international delegations in alphabetic order were: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, Turkey and the UK.
To relay some of the news and insight from this gathering, and in an attempt to discern the heat from the light, Outsourced Pharma will provide a series of articles over the next few weeks or so. As a start, we’ve selected a successful biotech; two healthcare companies with programs that reach down and assist academia and biotech entrepreneurs and innovators; a country, territory and region promoting their bio prowess; and a look at how contract research and development fits into it all. Here’s a preview:
1. Fibrotech
Shire paid $75 million (plus milestones) for Melbourne-based, Professor and CEO Darren Kelly’s Phase 1a compound for fibrosis. Kelly, an expert in clinical trials, will talk to us about how an early phase candidate got the attention from global pharma, and also about the environment in Australia for nurturing biotechnology.
2. Australia
Kelly is certainly not alone in the drug discovery field in Australia. Mentioned above as a top delegation to the BIO show this year, Australia provides an example of how national, state and local organizations can make a difference in the growth of the industry. We’ll find out those down under are making a strong case for international notoriety and investment.
3. GSK’s Discovery Fast Track Challenge
Everyone loves a contest. When the prize is assistance in moving drug discovery projects forward, maybe nobody more than researchers in academia. Pearl Huang, Ph.D, Vice President and Global Head of GSK’s Discovery Partnerships with Academia (DPAc), tells us how GSK picks “winners” in order to rapidly tap into and assist the most promising drug discovery concepts in academia.
4. Bayer Healthcare’s The CoLaborator
Bayer’s not reaching quite so far upstream, but Christopher Haskell, Ph.D., Head of U.S. Science Hub, Global Innovation Sourcing, has his regionally focused program for the advancement of drug discovery aimed at the next group of drug discoverers with a real need for help: emerging start-ups. In the meantime, I’ve picked The CoLaborator at the best name for a program of its kind!
5. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
Remember when any discussion of pharmaceutical manufacturing included Puerto Rico? Having been in business development for a global CRO/CMO, I sure do. Have you heard much lately? We’ll find out why that answer might be “not really,” and what is the status and new strategy for this industry participant, from Alberto Bacó Bagué, Secretary, Economic Development & Commerce.
6. MedCity: The “golden triangle” of London-Oxford-Cambridge
This regional partnership will give us a sense of how well this approach works in nurturing and enticing biotechnology. New CEO of MedCity, Eliot Forster, tells us how his tri-city initiative “drives forward the international competitiveness of our life science sector” and puts together all (and it is substantial) southeast England has to offer investors and the biotechnology industry at large.
7. The CRO(/CMO) in the Biotechnology Industry
Finally, where does contract research and development fit into this industry of drug discovery and new technologies emerging from universities, start-ups, and a growing list of successful biotechnology companies? With pharma itself designing their own innovative programs for working with biotech, is the contract industry competing directly with pharma now for new customers and provider services? These and other topics will be addressed by the CROs themselves.
A few weeks ago as we prepared for BIO 2014 in San Diego, I wrote an anticipatory article wondering about horses and protesters. We didn’t get horses, although the seagulls kept us company in the idyllic San Diego setting, but Hillary Clinton managed to pull in (what I expect is her usual array of) protesters. The real story at BIO this year, though, and after what seemed a momentary lull in energy last year (author’s opinion), is a renewed energy for advancing the industry by working together. It was evidenced via sessions, signs and pavilions, marketing materials, evening cocktails, and via fireworks from battleships: collaborate, cooperate, combine, invest, partner up. Reach for the sky.