Meet 2011′s Buzz of BIO Winner, Amrita Therapeutics

Posted under 2012 BIO International Convention, 2012 Business Forum, BIO Business Forum, BIO International Convention, Blog, Boston, Business and Investments, business development, Buzz of BIO, Cancer, Companies, Diagnostics, Discovery, Events, Funding, india, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, oncology, One-on-One's, Partnering, Pharmaceuticals, Startups, Universities, Videos, What would George do? by biotechnow@bio.org (Biotechnology Industry Organization)

2011 Buzz of BIO Health Winner

Amrita Therapeutics is a bio-pharma discovery company based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, pursuing the development of novel, multiple disease targeting therapies for cancer. Last year, they won the Buzz of BIO Contest for the 2011 BIO International Convention, where industry executives and leaders voted on their favorite biotech companies. BIO recently spoke with Susan Finston, the CEO of Amrita Therapeutics, to get their thoughts on the contest, last year’s BIO event, and what their company is up to now.

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For a young company like Amrita Therapeutics, being chosen as the Buzz of BIO winner was truly an amazing experience akin to that of Cinderella at the ball . . . if the ball had lasted four days! As CEO/MD for Amrita and the Buzz winner, I received complimentary registration for the BIO International Convention with full access to educational/policy sessions, BIO Exhibition, and most important of all – the BIO Business Forum, which also included a Company Presentation for our company.

The sheer size and scope of the Convention can be challenging for a small company to navigate. While I have attended the event for the last several years, the Buzz of BIO contest helped me think strategically about different aspects of the Convention and how they all come together to support Amrita’s business development and fundraising efforts. The BIO Business Forum was important for two reasons, providing both a coveted 15-minute slot to make an extended “elevator pitch” for Amrita to industry leaders, and opportunities for focused partnering meetings.

The prospect of the 15-minute BIO Business Forum presentation was both terrifying and exhilarating. It was hard for me to imagine that those lining up to see presentations from Takeda, Pfizer, and other global companies, would attend Amrita’s briefing as well. The Buzz of BIO team got the word out about the Amrita briefing! It was an incredible experience to step up to the podium of the BIO Business Forum to see a packed room for our presentation. (The Convention was also our first experience with making videos of Amrita presentations, and the BIO Business Forum presentation is available on the Amrita website www.amritatherapeutics.com.)

Also at the BIO Business Forum, Amrita was able to request and accept one-on-one “speed dating” meetings with companies that have led to continuing discussions with potential for longer term R&D partnerships, out-licensing and/or equity investment in Amrita. As noted by Jim Greenwood, President and CEO of BIO, the goal of the Buzz of BIO is to “help lend a voice to companies that may be overshadowed by the larger, more established organizations within the industry.” That was my experience for Amrita last year. Without the greater visibility for a small company like Amrita, it is hard to imagine that we would have garnered the positive attention of major bio-pharmaceutical companies at the Convention.

For companies that are entering the Buzz of BIO competition this year, the process is a concentrated version of the focused networking efforts that every company needs for long-term success. Each year brings a greater wealth of digital and social media outlets to drive attention to companies in the contest, and the same is true this year. Win, lose or draw, the Buzz of BIO competition provides a wonderful opportunity for all competing companies to garner attention at the 2012 BIO International Convention!

Where are we now? Last year we had only provisional patent applications and in vitro data for our lead peptide drug. Now, Amrita has filed our first two full utility/PCT patents and R&D has continued apace with development of additional drug candidates. In particular, we hope to be able to share our initial in vivo results in June. We also will be presenting an international case study on ongoing R&D between Amrita in India and a leading research institute in Portugal, the Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST).

The BIO International Convention has become an integral part of our strategy towards meeting our business development and fundraising goals. Amrita co-founder Ananda M. Chakrabarty and I look forward to seeing you in Boston!

Amrita will be returning to the Business Forum to give company presentation at this year’s event. Stay tuned for their presentation time, to be posted in myBIO!

Approval for AIDS Vaccine at Canadian University

Posted under Blog, Companies, Diagnostics, Discovery, Funding, Health, Health Care, HIV/AIDS, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pharmaceuticals, Startups, Universities, vaccine, Videos by biotechnow@bio.org (Biotechnology Industry Organization)

The Food and Drug Administration has given Canadian researchers approval to test a vaccine for HIV/AIDS on humans. Researchers from the University of Western Ontario are hopeful that with further tests, a vaccine could be on the market in about five years. Similar to the approaches used to develop vaccines for polio, influenza, rabies and hepatitis A, the vaccine is the first based on a genetically modified, killed whole virus and is the only HIV vaccine currently under development in Canada, and one of the only few in the world.

Beginning next month, a clinical trial on 40 HIV-positive volunteers will begin.  Following the trials, tests will begin on 6,600 HIV-negative but high-risk category volunteers. These tests will focus on immune responses and effectiveness of the vaccine in two more phases.

To read more about the University of Western Ontario’s AIDS vaccine, please follow this link.

Where’s the Deal?

Posted under BIO CEO, Biotechnology Industry, Blog, Business and Investments, Companies, Diagnostics, Discovery, drug development, Funding, Inside BIO Industry Analysis, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pharmaceuticals, Startups, Universities, Videos by biotechnow@bio.org (Biotechnology Industry Organization)

With only two weeks to go in 2011 it is looking like a five year low for deals. The chart below shows therapeutic deals dropping every year since 2007.

We use the Windhover/Elsevier Strategic Transaction Database as our starting point for deal analytics. We analyze each deal to determine if the deal is for a drug asset, removing generic/OTC deals, manufacturing/service deals, device/diagnostics/tools deals, and tech transfer deals. What remains are deals for biotech company pipeline drugs, from discovery through regulatory filing, and approved, branded drugs. These deals reflect the collaborative funding and corporate partnering for biotech’s in the drug space.

Table 1. Drug deals are down.

This data is in stark contrast to the number of meetings we see at our partnering events, and the discussions we hear from pharma executives. One on one meetings at the large BIO International Convention and BIO Europe conferences are still increasing at double digit growth rates year over year. Talk from pharmaceutical executives, as referenced in this WSJ story, continue to describe a widening of the deal net. So what is behind the divergence? Although there are fewer companies today vs. back in 2007, and more consolidation of “buy-side” licensees, can this really explain the magnitude of the drop? Perhaps we can dig into this a little deeper during the business roundtables at the upcoming BIO CEO Conference, February 13-14th in NYC.