PharmaTelevision - Part 1: 2009 and Biotech Financing: How To Stay Afloat in Turbulent Economic Waters

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Video title: Part 1: 2009 and Biotech Financing: How To Stay Afloat in Turbulent Economic Waters

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2009 is a tough year in the business world and for many biotech companies finding essential funding is proving to be harder than ever. In this comprehensive discussion Paul Hastings, CEO, OncoMed Pharmaceuticals and Steve Parkinson, CEO, Lakewood Amedex tell of the innovative ways that companies can use to secure the cash they need to operate and of the pros and cons of new financing sources.

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2009 and financing of biotech companies.

Fintan Walton:

Hello and welcome to PharmaVentures business review here at Bio in Atlanta. On this show I have Steve Parkinson, who is President CEO of Lakewood Amedex. He's also had a lot of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry including working at TranXenoGen, CereMedix, also working for Advanced Cell Technology, Johnson & Johnson, PPL a lot of experience there Steve Parkinson. I've also got on this show Paul Hastings. Paul J. Hastings is again a very experienced Senior Executive in the pharmaceutical and biotech sector. He is currently CEO of OncoMed Pharmaceuticals. And has worked as CEO at companies like QLT, Axys Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Celera also working at Chiron biopharmaceuticals, Genzyme Corporation, Synergen and Hoffmann-La Roche. Welcome.

Steve Parkinson:

Thank you.

Paul J. Hastings:

Thank you.

Fintan Walton:

We are here today to talk about the biotech industry and How To Stay Afloat in Turbulent Waters? A subject matter that is very clearly debated is through the year of 2009. And I'd like to tap into both of your experiences with regards to the financing of biotech companies? So Steve Parkinson I like to start with you in general when you look at 2009 and you see what's happening within the biotech sector and you look back from your own experience you working as a CEO in a biotech company trying to raise finance. Is this the low point?

Steve Parkinson:

Well it's certainly seems like that if you are out looking for financing at the moment. I think companies -- there is gonna be a lot of rationalizations on companies, obviously in good times there is a lot of companies get started with the small piece of technology or a small or one product I think we never gonna see a lot of roll ups as they used to call them and we've see this before in the biotech industry were the venture capital companies maybe called 5 or 6 companies in the portfolio and then you rationalize that down to 2 or 3. We are also seeing a lot of activity in the pharmaceutical industry. A lot of pharma companies are rationalizing and cutting back on their internal R&D and so we are seeing some acquisitions going out there or licensing of products and I think that's really the big hope right now for a biotech companies.

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Paul J. Hastings

President and CEO

Steve Parkinson, President and CEO at Lakewood Amedex, has over 25 years experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, including four CEO roles over the last eleven years, one of them as founder and CEO of TranXenoGen, a company he took public on London AIM. As President and CEO of CereMedix, a drug discovery and development company, he advanced their first product to clinical trials. Previously he was with Advanced Cell Technology, Johnson & Johnson, PPL Therapeutics (Dolly the Sheep) and Genzyme Transgenics. Born and raised in Scotland he has lived and worked in the US for the past 20 years. Mr. Paul J. Hastings brings more than 20 years of experience as a biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry executive. He has served as President and CEO of OncoMed Pharmaceuticals since January 2006. Prior to joining OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Paul J. Hastings was President and Chief Executive Officer of QLT, Inc. Previous to that, Mr. Paul J. Hastings served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Axys Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Celera Corporation in 2001. From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Paul J. Hastings served as the President of Chiron BioPharmaceuticals, a division of Chiron BioPharmaceuticals. Prior to that, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of LXR Biotechnology. Mr. Paul J. Hastings also held a series of management positions of increasing responsibility at Genzyme Corporation, including serving as President of Genzyme Therapeutics Europe as well as President of Worldwide Therapeutics. Mr. Paul J. Hastings also served as Vice President, Marketing and Sales and General Manager, Europe for Synergen, Inc., and previously held a series of marketing and sales management positions with Hoffmann-La Roche. Mr. Paul J. Hastings currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Proteolix, and also serves on the board of directors of Cerimon Pharmaceuticals. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy from the University of Rhode Island.

Lakewood Amedex

Lakewood Amedex, a private development stage biopharmaceutical company, headquartered in Sarasota, Florida, has a diverse portfolio of targeted therapeutics, broad spectrum anti-bacterials, and anti-viral technologies. The lead product, LPI007, is a fully human toxin-neutralizing monoclonal antibody shown to be effective in the treatment of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) caused by pathogenic EcoliO157:H7 and will be entering Phase I clinical trials in late 2008. Nubiotics are a broad spectrum first in class group of anti-bacterial compounds that represent a first line defense against the increasing number of antibiotic resistant bacteria. A proprietary nanoRNA technology developed for the treatment of viral diseases, such as avian influenza and hepatitis. OncoMed Pharmaceuticals OncoMed Pharmaceuticals was founded in August 2004, by Drs. Michael F. Clarke and Max Wicha who led the discovery of cancerstem cells, in solid tumors. The ability to isolate and monitor tumor initiating cells using specific surface markers and flow cytometry has allowed OncoMed to carefully evaluate the importance of specific targets associated with key biologic pathways implicated in both stem cell biology and cancer. Antibodies against these targets have been developed and tested within xenograft models derived from freshly resected human cancers. Using these approaches, OncoMed has a portfolio of active antibodies that target biologic pathways critical for survival of tumor initiating cells. OncoMed's first antibody targeting the pathways critical to cancerstem cells has now entered clinical trials. Details of the initial Phase I study, which is now recruiting patients, may be found at ClinicalTrials.gov. Multiple additional promising therapeutic candidates that target other critical pathways are also being developed. OncoMed Pharmaceuticals has attracted significant funding from a prominent group of investors, that include, US Venture Partners, Latterell Venture Partners, The Vertical Group, Morgenthaler Ventures, Nomura Phase4 Ventures, Delphi Ventures, Adams Street Partners, De Novo Ventures and Bay Partners.