Comments for Drug Baron

Comment on Rotten Foundations: How defects in academic publishing are the biggest threat to the commercial life sciences sector by Is academic research finally coming of age? | Drug Baron

Is academic research finally coming of age? | Drug Baron — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:03:52 +0000

[...] (and to much else besides) long before it became fashionable. In the six months since ’Rotten Foundations‘ was published here, we have seen an explosion in studies demonstrating the lack of [...]

Comment on The (Statistical) Power and the Glory by Steps to rebuilding pharma R&D efficiency: “The Exupéry Principle” for medicinal chemistry | Drug Baron

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 07:27:09 +0000

[...] has extensively explored the weaknesses in preclinical and clinical development of the lead compound, but largely ignored the foundation of the whole process: [...]

Comment on Finding Safer Medicines by Steps to rebuilding pharma R&D efficiency: “The Exupéry Principle” for medicinal chemistry | Drug Baron

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 07:25:58 +0000

[...] has extensively explored the weaknesses in preclinical and clinical development of the lead compound, but largely ignored the foundation of the whole [...]

Comment on Chocolate-flavoured Poison: Like red wine and debt, the company-building model of biotech investing tastes good but kills you eventually by Virtues of Differing Biotech Worldviews | Life Sci VC

Virtues of Differing Biotech Worldviews | Life Sci VC — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:40:44 +0000

[...] post on asset-centric models, as does David Grainger in his description of company-building as the chocolate-flavored poison in biotech. I’d also note that a portfolio of stage-diversified assets in these models often [...]

Comment on Too Much Skin in the Game? by Five Vital Statistics of a Successful Venture Fund – How does the new Index Ventures Life Science Fund Measure up? | Drug Baron

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 06:57:38 +0000

[...] quality implementation is the single most important factor driving returns in early stage biotech investing. Each asset has an intrinsic chance for success [...]

Comment on To be or not to be: The Pros and Cons of the Virtual Biotech Company by Five Vital Statistics of a Successful Venture Fund – How does the new Index Ventures Life Science Fund Measure up? | Drug Baron

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:15:13 +0000

[...] many cases, these single molecule companies remain virtual throughout their life. At the BioEurope Spring panel on biotech business models, Kevin Johnson, [...]

Comment on Finding Safer Medicines by Combinatorial animal study designs | Biomarkerblog

Combinatorial animal study designs | Biomarkerblog — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:22:00 +0000

[...] previous blog by DrugBaron has already commented on the over-focus on efficacy in early drug development as a [...]

Comment on Personalized Medicine Demands Investment in Innovative Diagnostics: Will the Returns be High Enough? by david cavalla

david cavalla — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:08:32 +0000

Interesting article and informed perspective. I agree that only the advent of combination Rx-Dx may change the economics of this.

Comment on Chocolate-flavoured Poison: Like red wine and debt, the company-building model of biotech investing tastes good but kills you eventually by admin

admin — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:44:42 +0000

Judy, Germany avoids getting “sucked down” because it controls the ability to print money. In the short term, the problem for the weak Southern economies is not just their debts, but there inability to devalue (by printing money) to escape them. As long as you can print money, the risk of default is negligible (hence the AAA status of the UK, despite its high debt burden and bloated public sector). The US only lost their AAA rating because of political fighting that made it doubtful if they would agree to meet their debts. But for the Eurozone outside Germany, they don’t have that luxury. So the bond markets can squeeze them until their pips, quite literally, squeak. Germany, by contrast, controls the ECBs ability to print that money – so Germany can’t default and remains (in the short term) above the fray.

But in the longer term, the Prisoner’s Dilemma applies just as much to Germany as to everyone else.

Comment on Chocolate-flavoured Poison: Like red wine and debt, the company-building model of biotech investing tastes good but kills you eventually by admin

admin — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:29:35 +0000

Quite right. Thank you for the correction. Hopefully my economic, political and scientific analyses are more accurate than my geography!