- Survey ranks top biotech, biopharma employers
Science announced the results of its annual Top Employers survey. After placing second last year, Genentech once again claimed the top spot for the sixth year. Missouri-based Monsanto climbed six spots to come in at number two this year, with Genzyme rounding out the top three.
The annual web-based survey, now in its seventh year, polls employees of biotech, biopharma and pharmaceutical companies, as well as related industries. Respondents rate companies on 23 factors, which include work culture, innovation, financial strength and ability to adapt to change.
Although the majority of respondents were North American employees, a number of companies with headquarters elsewhere made the list. The top 10 were rounded out by:
- Boehringer Ingelheim (Germany)
- Schering-Plough
- Roche (Switzerland)
- EMD Serono
- Millenium: The Takeda Oncology Company
- Gilead Sciences
- Eli Lilly
- read the Science release
- here's the complete top 20 list (.pdf)
- check out the article for what the CEOs had to say
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- CEOs save time, money with clearer trial contracts
A group of CEOs is hoping to save companies time and money by improving the legal contracts required to initiate cancer trials. Founded in 2001, the CEO Roundtable on Cancer is a nonprofit group that seeks to eliminate cancer as a public health threat.
Research has shown that the clinical trial contract negotiation phase can take as many as 300 days, stretching out development time and wasting millions of dollars in legal fees and other expenses. The Round able worked with the National Cancer institute to study legal concepts and provision common in many trial contracts, and drafted a universal template based on the criteria most company use. "The group hopes to shorten the drug testing process by making available 'common language' for clinical trial contracts through a set of standardized contract templates for use by NCI-designated cancer centers and the pharmaceutical industry," the group said in a statement.
Use of the template is, of course, voluntary. But the group believes that the standardized contract can cut contract negotiation time down from a median of 172 day to just 30 days.
- see this release
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- Crisis will spur new biotech deals on worse terms
Lots of folks have been looking for the glimmer of a silver lining in the immense cloud hanging over global financial markets. They might look no further than Big Pharma. According to a new Datamonitor report, cash-rich drugmakers are poised to take advantage of the credit crunch, in part because they didn't overdose on the cheap debt that has trapped so many companies now that credit has dried up.
How might this play out for pharma? Acquisitions and licensing deals, Datamonitor says. We all know that drugmakers have been looking to thicken up their pipelines by buying up biotech companies, licensing biotech drugs, and otherwise setting up development deals with the smaller, more innovative firms. And with so many drugmakers--not to mention private equity firms and other investors--chasing these deals, prices have been pretty favorable for biotech.
Now, that could change. Biotech companies are getting caught in the credit crunch, watching their access to capital dry up. And Big Pharma has cash. Biotech could be forced to take less favorable terms in licensing deals, Datamonitor predicts. Either way, pharma is sure to use the market turmoil to snap up their favorite biotechs and biotech products. "[T]he credit crunch provides big pharma with exactly the opportunity it needs to rebuild its ailing pipelines," the report concludes.
- check out the Datamonitor release
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- Nventa slashes staff, looks for M&A deals
San Diego-based Nventa Biopharmaceuticals is whacking eight of its 13 staffers as it ratchets back its expenses and stays focused on advancing its lead therapies. Out the door go Richard B. Lai Fatt, Ph.D., vice president of corporate development, and David Duncan, Jr., vice president of finance. It's all part of a restructuring aimed at reducing the company's cash burn rate by 30 percent. And the developer says that it will look for M&A opportunities to help bolster its finances.
"We are committed to the continued advancement of HspE7, Hsp 6/11 and Poly-ICR, and as such, we are making difficult yet necessary decisions today to ensure these products have every opportunity to succeed," said Gregory M. McKee, president and chief executive officer at Nventa. "As part of our commitment to the continued advancement of HspE7, Hsp 6/11 and Poly-ICR, we are aggressively seeking strategic alliances, including merger and acquisition opportunities, which will allow us to realize the greatest value for each of these important programs."
Nventa says it had $5.9 million at the beginning of October, enough money to reach the second quarter of next year.
- read the Nventa release
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