Biomed report
Lawyers, investors find common ground in biotech
Boston Business Journal - by Allison Connolly
It's no secret that attorneys are expanding their reach into the biotechnology sector. I mean, have you ever read a patent application? Not exactly bedtime reading.
But interestingly, biotech executives are not the only ones who need lawyers to navigate through such a complex business. Increasingly, venture capitalists and investment bankers are hiring biotech attorneys to decide whether a prospective investment is worth it.
I guess investors are learning the hard lessons of the dot-com debacle: They're not going to invest in a company just because its name starts with an industry catch-word like "genomics" or "proteomics." (Remember all those Internet companies adopting the dot-com at the end of their name with hopes of attracting VCs to their shop? And then, just as quickly, dropping the dot-com last year when the funds for dot-coms dried up?)
After the Human Genome Project was unveiled last year, investors were shamelessly pumping money into companies with the word "genomics" on the masthead. But, in their defense, they soon realized that there has to be more to it than the name. And soon, analysts were calling companies "overvalued"--something we still don't hear enough.
So now, in 2001, venture capitalists and investment bankers are tapping attorneys to evaluate patent positions and other strategic assets a biotech company has to offer.
"What we've seen in the past eight to 10 months is that people who are putting money into biotech in particular are becoming sophisticated enough to look at whether the company has IP (intellectual property) protection," said Albert Jacobs Jr., chairman of the national IP department of Greenberg Traurig LLP.
Greenberg Traurig has just formed a new biotech committee, of which Jacobs is co-chairman, that will unite the national firm's IP practice with its corporate practice. With 55 attorneys across the country dedicated to this one group, the committee will service all aspects of the biotech trade: From patent applications to tax issues to immigration processes. With so many scientists moving here from abroad, immigration has become a key point for biotech companies, Jacobs said.
Other firms are seeing the fruits of international interest in Boston's biotech sector. Doron Ezickson, managing partner of Boston's McDermott, Will & Emery, said the firm's attorneys are forming special groups just to deal with all of the cases coming in from Israel and Germany. The firm has an office in London, which worked on the patent for the first cloned sheep, Dolly. The firm will go wherever the business takes it, he said.
"Obviously, there's hope that there will be extended investment in these companies, and Boston plays a critical role in that," Ezickson said.
Spotfire rides `data tsunami'
It's also no secret that IT companies are salivating over the stable, growing biotech industry. But while some are still trying to get their feet wet, others are seizing on the early opportunities.
Take Somerville-based Spotfire Inc. Its technology allows biotech companies to file and sort data from numerous databases on one Internet-based program. So, for example, if a scientist wants to compare the structure of e coli with a structure he or she found under his or her microscope, the scientist could view them side-by-side with a Spotfire product.
"In biotechnology, there's a certain process researchers go through to discover whether the chemical information they have can predict whether this will be a blockbuster drug," said David Butler, Spotfire's vice president of marketing. "The problem is, they've never had an environment that's easy to use."
The company already calls such names as Cambridge-based Biogen Inc. and Rockville, Md.-based Celera Genomics (the private company that mapped the human genome) clients. It has a total of 100 biotech companies as clients.
Most recently, Spotfire inked a partnership with IBM.
"There's so much data generated--we call it the data tsunami--that no one really knows how to get at it," Butler said.
Spotfire has received $40 million in venture capital, and has 180 employees.
Locals named to BIO's board
With all of the controversy over cloning and stem cell research, you will be hearing a lot more from the biotechnology industry's national mouthpiece, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). But you may not know that a number of local executives were recently chosen to sit on BIO's board of directors.
Among them: James Mullen, CEO of Cambridge-based Biogen Inc.; Richard Pops of Cambridge-based Alkermes Inc.; Una Ryan of Needham-based Avant Immunotherapeutics Inc.; Mark Skaletsky of Waltham-based Althexis Co. Inc.; and Henri Termeer, CEO of Cambridge-based Genzyme Corp.
ALLISON CONNOLLY, health care and biotechnology reporter for the Boston Business Journal, can be reached by e-mail at AConnolly@bizjournals.com.
Latest News |
Most Viewed Stories |
Most Emailed Stories |
