PeaceAKKI should send this to every Biotech executive staffer in Australia. it is my view that most walk around with their heads firmly in the wrong place, they really believe that a Major is going to descend from the sky and swoop them up by Licencing their tech, paying a huge upfront, massive milestones and then trailing royalties.
The vast majority are just empty vessels propped up by CR's from naïve retail investors or Sophisticated investors hedging.
What Australian Biotech CEO's need to recognise is that if they bring in some good and well credentialed business people that know and have a history in creating products from the ground up they will come to the attention of Large Pharma more quickly, and most importantly the big folks can understand their technology because its off the drawing board out of the lab and in a Proof Of Concept product, they can touch, feel and work up a better mousetrap.
After dealing with many biotech CEOs and Executive Management Teams, it seems to be a consistent theme amongst them that they heavily skew the decision making process to the Scientific Team that developed the technology in the first place.
IMHO all Biotechs that have tech ready to licence should have both a Scientific Executive Committee and also a Commercial Development Committee with only the CEO and some Board Members sitting on both.
I have seen too many CEOs go to trade shows in EU and USA and expect to come back with a deal, only to come back with more receipts for the Accountants to tally up the waste.
Australia was once known as the Lucky Country from a period of our forbearers being prepared to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty creating products and in turn wealth. We seem to think we are now the Smart Country and that the world will fall at our feet.
100% of nothing is still nothing. So instead of waiting for the Golden Phoenix to swoop down and sweep them off their feet, they need to be proactive and exploit our entrepreneurs and encourage them to take the Biotech and develop Australian businesses, that is how wealth is created from science, not sitting on their shiny backsides and picking up your weekly paycheck in between jaunts to EU and USA.
The first line of the exit strategy should be 'create shareholder wealth' not waste years navel-gazing the worlds top 30 Pharma companies waiting to be kissed up to and held close. They should focus on delivering what a customer wants (Product?), then organisational performance (KPIs) and finally Shareholder wealth. They need to think like CSL and or Cochlear and build something.
