Category Archives: Jim’s Corner

For emerging biotech companies, the economic climate remains challenging. As of April 2010, 38 percent of public biotech companies were operating with less than a year of cash and 24 percent were operating with six months or less of cash, much higher than historic averages. Investors remain wary of taking risks, particularly given the current volatility in global financial markets, and biotech investments are a risky proposition. A biotech discovery runs a one in 5,000 Read More >

BIO hosted a media briefing on Wednesday, June 30th, with Jim Greenwood and Rachel King, Co-Founder and CEO of GlycoMimetics, Inc. and member of BIO’s Executive Committee. Jim and Rachel addressed the public policies under consideration by Congress, regulatory agencies and the courts which have the potential to impact the biotechnology industry.  Key discussion topics included implementation of health care reform (biosimilars, comparative effectiveness, Therapeutic Discovery Project Program, and Cures Acceleration Network), upcoming reauthorization of Read More >

This was the opening slide for my talk in Atlanta last year. We found ourselves then in the midst of a perfect storm of economic meltdown, political volatility and scientific challenge. We knew that these challenges would bring significant change to our industry but that if we remained confident, we would emerge from these challenges better and stronger. We have. Let me tell you why I say that. Biotech stocks have outperformed virtually every other Read More >

From the mass production of life-saving medicines in cell cultures to the screening of our blood supply for life-threatening viruses, patented DNA molecules (often referred to as “gene patents”) are used in many ways to benefit society. The term “gene patent” is something of a misnomer because genes as they exist in the body cannot be patented. A naturally occurring gene — even a newly discovered one — cannot be patented. Patents don’t provide ownership Read More >

One of the impediments to a reasonable public dialogue regarding the creation of a pathway for the approval of biosimilars has been the deluge of misinformation.  It is difficult to choose where to begin in correcting the numerous falsehoods in a recent guest editorial in the New York Times (“Biologics Boondoggle”; 3/8/10). To start, the authors claim that the provisions in the House and Senate health care reform bills would “discourage the development and significantly Read More >