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The Allure Of High-Hanging Fruit: Why VCs and Biotech Execs See Value In Difficult Drug Targets

 
• By Shirley Haley

An agile and energetic cohort of biotech platform companies plans to capture Big Pharma's imagination--and its pocketbook--by going after intractable drug targets that have long eluded the industry, and they're doing it on a shoestring budget.

In parallel with the new models and altered expectations taking shape in the post-apocalyptic venture capital world, certain platform-based biotechs are reviving the spirit of adventure that flagged in recent years as the economy soured and many investors dived for the cover of non-research, development-only companies (NARDOs). Many of these innovative platform plays were founded in the midst of the financial meltdown, supported by venture capital groups that stayed the course on early-stage companies. ( See Exhibit 1.)

This cohort of biotechs aims to develop platforms that can generate products against difficult targets Big Pharma is no longer...

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