Biotech Future Looking Rosy

High above the flight deck of the U.S.S. Midway, aboard which the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) hosted a welcome party for its annual convention in San Diego last Monday, “Rosie” was written large in red lights. The effect accompanied a dance routine featuring women dressed as Rosie the Riveter, but the reference to the adjective “rosy” was both overt and apropos.

The biopharmaceutical sector is performing strongly this year, and forecasts are for solid growth to at least 2020. A spike in initial public stock offerings, advances in late-stage product development, the introduction of new products, and a shift in corporate emphasis to specialty pharmaceuticals suggested to attendees that the business is maturing.

A report released at the convention by En­gland-based market analysts Evaluate sees biologics accounting for more than 50% of the top 100 drugs on the market by 2020. The firm anticipates 5% growth for the overall pharmaceutical market to more than $1 trillion by 2020.

Merck Serono was among the biopharmaceutical firms at BIO with products on the threshold of approval. TH-302, a drug for soft-tissue sarcoma that Merck Serono developed in partnership with Threshold Pharmaceuticals, entered Phase III clinical trials last year.

Second Genome, which focuses on microbiome proteomics, exemplified the firms at the event that are moving biotech drug research beyond genomics. “There is definite excitement afoot,” Mohan S. Iyer, the firm’s chief business officer, told C&EN. “Pharma is realizing that a new look through the microbiome lens could lead to a whole new set of tractable, druggable targets.”

The conference’s two keynote luncheon speakers, entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, spoke with some authority on the topic of risk. Clinton also mentioned a conversation with a woman—the creator of a small biotech firm—who told her that women are not made to feel welcome in the industry.

“She asked me if I would say that today,” Clinton said at the end of her onstage interview with BIO CEO James Greenwood. “So, I just said it.”