Opportunities Abound

Attendees awoke to the news this morning about GlaxoSmithKline’s announcement that it will pay millions — $720 million to be exact — for Sirtris Pharmaceuticals. This is the stuff biotech CEOs dream about. And it was the buzz at many breakfast tables at this morning’s workshop, “Antibiotics: Bad Bugs – Few Drugs.”

The BNVC meeting, of course, is all about making the right connections in the industry between investors and early-stage companies which, in turn, will hopefully lead to the next “blockbuster” or merger. According to this morning’s panelists, antibiotics represent a huge opportunity in the industry.

There is a growing unmet medical need for new drugs due to the rapidly increasing resistance to antibiotics, noted moderator Praveen Tipirneni, MD, vice president of business development for Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc.From an investor’s standpoint, this means enormous market opportunity, which is why BIO holds conferences such as this.