Big Biotech in Today's Industry Environment

Please note: This meetup will be taking place on the 3rd floor, suite 301.

This month's interactive discussion will be led by Chris Garabedian, who is currently Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Celgene and was formerly Vice President of Corporate Development at Gilead. Chris also held positions at Gilead as Vice President of Marketing and Vice President of Medical Affairs, where he led 4 global product launches during Gilead's growth into a top biotech company. Below is a description of this month's topic:

"Big Biotech in Today's Industry Environment"

A handful of biotech companies have made the transition to become fully-integrated, global, and profitable biopharmecutical entities. Companies like Celgene, Gilead, Genzyme and others have proven to be as effective at development and commercialization as big pharma after the biotech industry spent years in the shadow of the development and commercial prowess of the pharma industry giants.

Now that big pharma has been crippled with expiring patents and a short supply of novel blockbuster compounds in late-stage development, they rely increasingly on licensing and acquisitions of biotech companies to fuel their growth. Roche's bid to acquire less than half of Genentech, their remaining share, for $40+ billion put Genentech's market value at $100 billion, which is more than nearly all of the big pharma players including Merck, Abbott, Sanofi-Aventis, Lilly, Wyeth, BMS, Schering, and AstraZeneca.

What is big biotech's role in the future of the industry? Will they become the preferred partner of small biotech? Will big pharma try to alter their business to operate more like big biotech with specialty-focused markets and more targeted R&D? Will the remaining big biotechs get acquired by big pharma or will we see the first big pharma company get acquired by big biotech?

Come join us to discuss these questions and more...