Financial Times Business Top Title March 2022
How could a large collection of small companies, most with fewer than 50 employees, rise to compete with Big Pharma, one of the world's most breathtakingly expensive and highly regulated industries?
Beginning in the 1970s, several scientific breakthroughs promised to transform the creation of new medicines. As investors sought to capitalize on these Nobel Prize-winning discoveries, the biotech industry grew to thousands of small companies around the world. Each sought to emulate what the major pharmaceutical companies had been doing for a century or more, but without the advantages of scale, scope, experience, and massive resources.
Biotech companies have met the challenge by creating nearly 40% more of the most important treatments for previously unmet medical needs. Moreover, they have done so with much lower overall costs.
From Breakthrough to Blockbuster: The Business of Biotechnology focuses on both the companies themselves and the broader biotech ecosystem that supports them. It paints a portrait of the crucial roles played by academic research, venture capital, contract research organizations, the capital markets, and pharmaceutical companies, demonstrating how a supportive environment enabled the entrepreneurial biotech industry to create novel medicines with unprecedented efficiency. In doing so, it also offers insights for any industry seeking to innovate in uncertain and ambiguous conditions.
Industry Reviews
"Written with authority" -- Financial Times
"A fascinating guide to the complex business of biotechnology, with deep insights into the key factors, players, interactions and behaviors that have shaped the success of this industry. Suitable as a primer for those with no knowledge of the field, or as a refresher for the cognoscenti. Trigger warning: contains material that may distress pharma management" -- Sir Gregory Winter FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge University, recipient of 2018 Nobel Prize in
Chemistry
"A must read for all biotechnology leaders, this is a state-of-the-art analysis of the industry from two of its most successful entrepreneurs and a top business school professor, bringing rigor and actionable insight." -- Dr Richard Mason, CEO of Apollo Therapeutics and former head of Johnson & Johnson's London Innovation Center
"How is it possible that a few thousand small companies, many of them short-lived, can out-compete the mighty pharma majors at their own game? Understanding this puzzle is of fundamental importance for industry leaders and policy makers alike. This marvelous insider analysis is a must-read." -- Stefan Scholtes, Dennis Gillings Professor of Health Management, Cambridge University Centre for Health Leadership & Enterprise
"A remarkable synthesis and analysis of the Biotech industry that is a must-read for those trying to develop new life-saving medicines." -- Margaret A. Liu, M.D., DSchc, MDhc, FISV, CEO of Pax Therapeutics, and board member, Ipsen, S.A.
"Anyone who wants to understand how to leverage ecosystems for innovation in the face of uncertainty must read this rigorous analysis of how biotech companies, investors, government and big pharma have worked together to achieve some of the biggest scientific and commercial breakthroughs of the last century." -- Arnoud De Meyer, Professor Emeritus and former President, Singapore Management University
"A must read for everybody interested in the medical biotech industry, practically relevant and theoretically sound." -- Jürgen Mihm, , Professor of Technology and Operations Management at INSEAD
"An outstanding overview of the science and the business of innovative drugs. Students, researchers and policy makers will be immensely benefited from this book." -- Mahmud Hassan, Ph.D, Professor and Director, Pharmaceutical Management Program, Rutgers Business School
