leverage its human capital over many more molecules. The potential value of the total program reduces the incentive of either side to “cheat” and try to take advantage of the other on any single transaction. Each benefits from the long-term success of the other.
With massive layoffs in recent years, pharma has already made a de facto commitment to buy the products it needs to survive. If today’s conventional, venture-supported biotech industry fails to deliver the right mix of high-quality assets, pharma will be in serious trouble. Rather than waiting to see what the existing industry produces and hoping it meets their strategic needs, pharma can hedge that risk by supporting a number of these Partnered External Research and Development (PERD) funds.
To its credit, pharma is beginning to experiment with new business models along these lines. Discovery-development partnerships like the GSK-Avalon parallel investment program, the Lilly Capital Funds Portfolio-Atlas Development Corp Arteaus Project and Sanofi-Third-Rock-Warp-Drive partnerships are all examples of early stage pharma-bio-venture programs that show great promise. Pharma needs to run many more such experiments with both established venture firms and purpose-built teams.
PERD funds serve a different purpose from conventional venture funds: to integrate with their partners’ operations and serve their interests in the entrepreneurial community, and in doing so to make money for their investors. They need to be built with hands-on drug developers, capable of serving as true operating partners to
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Author: Standish Fleming
Standish Fleming is a 29-year veteran of early stage life sciences investing. He has helped raise and manage six venture capital funds totaling more than $500 million, and has served on the boards of 19 venture-backed companies, including Nereus Pharmaceuticals, Ambit Biosciences, Triangle Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Gilead Sciences) and Actigen/Corixa (now part of GSK).
He has extensive experience in all aspects of venture management and finance, including fund-raising, investor relations, operations and portfolio development. He has made investments, managed portfolio companies, raised funds, pursued business development, taken companies public and successfully exited investments through public-market sales and buyouts. In 1993, Mr. Fleming co-founded San Diego's Forward Ventures. He has made investments in almost every segment of the health-care industry, including pharmaceuticals, biologics, diagnostics, devices, services, and software. He has managed both platform and product companies, portfolio investments, and led or participated in financings at all levels, from pre-startup to PIPES in public companies, in both debt and equity. He has helped start more than 15 companies and served as founding CEO of eight. Fleming serves as a director of CONNECT, San Diego's support organization for the early-stage community, and is a past president of the Biotechnology Venture Investors Group. Before establishing Forward Ventures, He served as the chairman, president and CEO of GeneSys Therapeutics, (merged with Somatix and acquired by Cell GeneSys [NASDAQ:CEGE]). Fleming began his venture career with Ventana Growth Funds in San Diego in 1986. He earned his B.A. from Amherst College and his M.B.A. from the UCLA Graduate School of Management.
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