< Health  pg.14

Business & Finance pg.2

When a record turnout braved the aftermath of the heaviest New York snowstorm in history to attend the mid-February Bio CEO & Investor Conference, BIO President & CEO James Greenwood said it was a signal.

"It’s a signal that for biotechnology companies and investors, the sky is the limit, with opportunities abounding in therapeutics, genomics, personalized medicine, diagnostics, biomarkers, cell therapies and vaccines," he said.

With more then 250 approved therapies, another 350-plus in clinical trials, 222 million acres of biotech crops and $120 billion in financing since 2000, "our industry has reached a level of maturity during the past few years," Greenwood said. That maturity "is paying off in terms of stability. And stability leads to greater incentives for investment and partnering activities to fuel a steady stream of new and unique therapies."

The online biotech publication Signals Magazine reports recent years have brought "a different pattern" to biotechnology’s financial performance, one "in which the valleys have been shortened and the peaks extended." BioCentury notes "dozens of metrics mark the coming of age of the biotech industry," including the current count of 12 companies with drugs of more than $500 million in annual sales.

Agricultural and industrial biotechnology firms are part of the financial snapshot as well. Biotech crop acreage continues to grow at a double-digit annual pace, translating into strong sales and revenues for the industry’s leaders. Industrial biotech enzymes already are used in dozens of manufacturing processes, with revolutionary technologies such as bioethanol nearing commercialization.

But for all of the industry’s progress, a small minority of biotech companies still account for the bulk of products and revenues. Less than 10 percent of the 4,400 biotechnology companies worldwide have a therapeutic product on the market. Eighty-five percent are privately held companies, most of them small businesses.

The world is counting on these entrepreneurial startups to deliver the vaccines that will prevent epidemics, the therapies that will cure cancer, the foods that will feed the world and the manufacturing and energy solutions that will preserve our environment for generations to come. These are small companies, but they are doing big science.

They cannot do it alone. Translating their ideas into products takes hundreds of millions of dollars on average, and upwards of a decade of development. Financing and corporate partnerships are critical to biotechnology progress, as is supportive public policy. BIO helps member companies find corporate partners and investors by hosting a series of conferences. The organization also advocates the biotechnology industry’s positions on patent, grant, tax and financial disclosure policies.

The Emerging Companies Section Governing Body, a group of 39 BIO member company leaders, sets policy and provides direction to BIO’s staff on these and other issues critical to biotech growth.

Next >