Tenant Profile: Transition Therapeutics CEO Tony Cruz
Today, with stock gains dominated by minerals and energy, and venture capitalists still skittish after the biotech meltdown of 2002, Cruz urged science entrepreneurs at a recent MaRS Peer to Peer event to think like business people. “Which of several molecules will attract serious investors? What does Big Pharma want? What are the current hot areas? Diabetes? Multiple sclerosis? Alzheimer’s?”
En route to becoming a billion-dollar enterprise, a company must establish the milestones needed to build value and attract more investors. “Then it must meet its next milestone in order to reach the subsequent level of investment,” Cruz said.
Among the daunting challenges, is the ten to fourteen years required to go from a lead molecule, through preclinical and clinical stages, and finally to drug approval. Along the way, cash-seeking companies need to make decisions like when to go public or when to merge with a public company — bearing in mind all the additional pressure, accountability and disclosure these moves entail.
Cruz thinks entrepreneurs also have to be ready to kill a product too beset with hurdles and to acquire promising properties. “If you see a molecule that’s better than yours, grab it,” he said. And to obtain cash for continued research, entrepreneurs must be ready to sell their companies strategically. “In biotech, you have to go where the market is. Flexibility is all-important.”
Navigating the road from a lead molecule to successful company requires decisiveness, partnering and financing — all supported by a great deal of scientific, legal, corporate and business expertise. In light of these factors, Cruz advises the audience to “stay passionate — biotech is not just a business.”
To learn more about Transition Therapeutics, visit: www.transitiontherapeutics.com
DID YOU KNOW?
- Canada has the highest number of biotech companies per capita worldwide.
- Ontario has the 3rd largest regional concentration of biotech firms in North America.
- Ontario is home to over 100 biotech firms and 21 research institutions, together employing over 2500 scientists.
- From 1996-1999 the number of biotech companies in Ontario has increased by 65%.
Source: Biotech Ontario
BROWSE PAGES
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- MaRS Convergence: Fall 2007
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- MaRS - Year One
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- MaRS Director Awarded Prestigious Fellowship
- Tenant Profile: Transition Therapeutics CEO Tony Cruz
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- MaRS Convergence: Winter 2005
