Lots of people in biotech think they are doing innovative things, even when they are really doing something pretty conservative, like testing a proven drug for some new use, or crafting some new way to deliver a therapy with more efficiency or convenience. But how, especially in today’s sluggish economy, do people muster up the guts, raise the mountains of cash, and find the staying power to do something truly big and unprecedented—like create a regenerative medicine based on stem cells?
Risky (or maybe reckless) as it sounds, it’s still easy to find people who are working on this exact kind of high-risk/high-reward kind of challenge. I soaked up some candid insights from some biotech cowboys on Friday during part of the Convergence Forum for life science leaders in San Francisco. This conversation generated more than a few tweet-worthy nuggets for our readers, which I thought were worth rounding up here. The speakers were John Mendlein, chairman of San Diego-based Fate Therapeutics and aTyr Pharma; Paul Hastings, CEO of Redwood, City, CA-based OncoMed Pharmaceuticals; David Perry, CEO of Palo Alto, CA-based Anacor Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ANAC); and Bryan Roberts, a partner with Venrock Associates in Palo Alto.
To read the full, original article click on this link: How to Raise Money for an Honest-to-God Innovative Biotech Startup: Highlights from Convergence | Xconomy
Author: Luke Timmerman
