During Tuesday's Biotech Industry Organization conference lunch in Atlanta, the group's CEO -- former Congressman Jim Greenwood -- used the word "change" so often that a casual listener might have mistaken the gathering for a self-help seminar.
Except this wasn't the kind of change that comes from within. Instead it's coming from the unfriendly capital markets, which Greenwood mentioned in passing, and more significantly, from Washington. We'll let VC Bruce Robertson of HIG Ventures LLC explain: "There's a new sheriff in town."
Robertson was talking about the Obama administration's views on biopharma M&A, but the the administration's likely impact on the industry goes well beyond that. Talk of how the government is going to shake up healthcare, from pricing pressures to insurance reimbursement to comparative effectiveness, has been a constant topic here. Usually relegated to the backwaters of panel discussions, there are two tracks this year dedicated to "Federal Science & Opportunities."
On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hosted a half-day meeting to show the private sector what research coming out of its labs -- lots of work on flu, swine or otherwise, as you might expect -- also might be candidates for tech transfer or public-private partnerships. Reps from the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration were also there. Unfortunately the tour of the Emergency Operations Center was canceled, which apparently happens whenever there's an emergency.
Biotech startups are also looking to the government to help bridge the funding gap, which grew more dire when the first-quarter venture numbers came out recently. Michael Weingarten (pictured), director of the National Cancer Institute's small-business grant program, or SBIR, told The Deal Tuesday that applications are up 34% this year after years of declining numbers. An extra $10 billion for the entire NIH tucked into the stimulus package hasn't hurt.
Weingarten declined to say how much of the stimulus money NCI will get for its SBIR program, but he and his colleague Andrew Kurtz said they'll announce next week the first two recipients of their "bridge" awards, $3 million SBIR grants that only go to companies that can guarantee the grant will be matched by private-sector funds. They didn't disclose names, but one firm working on cancer drugs has brought 6-to-1 funding, and another, a medical imaging startup, brought matching funds. -
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