{"id":218354,"date":"2023-05-08T08:06:27","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T07:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/?p=218354"},"modified":"2025-05-13T13:37:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T13:37:02","slug":"building-a-business-through-economic-uncertainty-tales-from-the-biotech-trenches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/life-sciences-healthcare\/blog\/building-a-business-through-economic-uncertainty-tales-from-the-biotech-trenches\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a business through economic uncertainty: tales from the biotech trenches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Timing is everything. That was the overarching sentiment from the experienced group of\u00a0 biopharma leaders that formed the panel discussion chaired by Mike Ward, Clarivate Global Head of Life Sciences and Healthcare Thought Leadership, at this year\u2019s AngloNordic Life Science conference.<\/em><\/p>\n

The \u2018If I Knew Then What I Know Now\u2019 panel has for 15 years been a staple of the annual conference<\/a>, which brings together biotech companies and investors in London for networking, company presentations and plenary discussions.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s four panelists had built and sold companies through economic recessions, funding cycles and biotech bubbles both in Europe and the United States and have the scars to prove it. When the economic situation is up, advised Stephanie L\u00e9ouzon, managing director of health care investment banking at Stifel, you should \u201craise as much cash as you possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it is good to start [an enterprise] at the bottom of the market because the returns are better, it is also the hardest time to raise money, whether it\u2019s a fund or a company,\u201d said Dan Mahony, current Chairman of the U.K.\u2019s BioIndustry Association, recalling the establishment of Polar Capital Partners on the eve of the financial crisis in 2007. \u201cYou have to be patiently impatient,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to be active [about raising cash] and keep knocking on doors,\u201d he advised.<\/p>\n

Taking a long view and hustling through the downturn<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Company leaders must think strategically about what the organization should be when it grows up, said Eva-Lotta Allan, chair of Draupinir Bio and former deal maker at Ablynx, Immunocore and Vertex, as this will help to narrow the focus and inevitably become more financeable. The advice of a calm board that can provide independent guidance to a CEO is critically important at this time in a company\u2019s lifecycle.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd once that money is there, the pressure will not subside,\u201d said Allan. \u201cYou must put that money to good use, prioritize the right projects and create value.\u201d Optionality is great at this point, panelists agreed, but focusing on one value driver \u2013 whether an asset, a platform, or a project \u2013 to help the company reach its value inflection point is the best next step forward after raising funds.<\/p>\n

Artios Pharma CEO Niall Martin recalled the sale of KuDOS Pharmaceuticals to AstraZeneca for $210m in late 2005 and advised that there will always be a question mark about the right <\/em>time to sell when there is pressure in the system to sell assets, which is mirrored in today\u2019s biotech environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lesson in doing things too early,\u201d said Martin. If the company had waited six months for phase 1 results and knew the true value of its asset, KuDOS would have been \u201cfive, six or seven times more valuable.\u201d KuDOS\u2019 lead asset, cancer drug olaparib (AKA LYNPARZA\u00ae), went on to generate sales of $2.9 billion for AstraZeneca in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The panelists agreed that \u201cwhat goes down will come up\u201d and vice versa. \u201cThese cycles are just the nature of biotech,\u201d said Mahony and for a company wanting to enter the public markets, timing is key. \u201cKnowing when to jump through the [IPO] window is very important and hindsight is a wonderful thing,\u201d concluded Martin.<\/p>\n

To learn more about how Clarivate helps life science companies partner smarter through deal-making intelligence, please visit Cortellis Deals Intelligence<\/a>. You can find further insights from Mike Ward here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Timing is everything. That was the overarching sentiment from the experienced group of\u00a0 biopharma leaders that formed the panel discussion chaired by Mike Ward, Clarivate Global Head of Life Sciences…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":11970,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_type":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,21],"tags":[414,333,159,302],"class_list":["post-218354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biopharma","category-life-sciences-healthcare","tag-biotech","tag-pharma","tag-portfolio-strategy","tag-research-commercialization","clarivate-industry-life-sciences-and-healthcare","clarivate-product-portfolio-strategy-business-development"],"acf":[],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":218354,"ko":11969},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/life-sciences-healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/life-sciences-healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/life-sciences-healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/life-sciences-healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/life-sciences-healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218354"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/life-sciences-healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":452946,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/life-sciences-healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218354\/revisions\/452946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/life-sciences-healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/life-sciences-healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/life-sciences-healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/life-sciences-healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}