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TRANSPARENCY IN GOV’T. FUNDING OPTIONS FOR BIODEFENSE IS KEY TO SECURING PRIVATE EQUITY INVESTMENT IN SECTOR FreeMind’s Public/Private Sector Roundtable Discusses Funding, Project Prioritization and Collaborative Research |
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, January 13, 2010—In the wake of a decision last month to move more than $600 million from the nation’s Project Bioshield Special Reserve Fund to other government agencies, representatives of BARDA (Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority), NIH (National Institutes of Health), NIAID (National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases) and DTRA (Defense Threat Reduction Agency), 15 CEO’s from some of the country’s leading biodefense and infectious diseases companies and a leading biodefense investment banking firm met yesterday during the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference here to discuss how best to facilitate the development and approval of products in this critical sector. (All participants are listed below.) Organized by FreeMind Group (www.freemindconsultants.com) , specialists in helping companies and academic institutions in life sciences raise money from government agencies through grants and contracts, the wide-ranging discussion covered what federal agencies are doing to create greater transparency for their funding initiatives, communicate their individual projects to each other and encourage investment from the venture capital community. Public sector participants agreed—and see the need. The number of applications for NIH’s SBIR funding alone has doubled since private sector money has withdrawn from early stage companies, many “in danger of going out of business”—and there was speculation that the success rate for these applications could plummet from its current 25 percent to below ten percent. There is also pressure within the granting agencies to allow venture capital-funded companies to compete for available dollars, and it is possible a small percentage may be permitted. Funding for BARDA, which is dedicated to the development and purchase of necessary vaccines, drugs, therapies and diagnostic tools for public health medical emergencies and manages Project BioShield, has increased from $100 million in 2007 and 2008 to $305 million for this year. The awareness has led to shorter applications for some grants and contracts, and in some cases, larger awards—notably in NIH’s RO1 programs—particularly where there is an academic/industry partnership. Much information on the status of potential grants is now published on the individual agencies’ Web sites. And a very new development is the creation of the Integrated National Biodefense Portfolio, a collaborative effort among BARDA, DTRA, NIH, NIAID and the Department of Defense to minimize duplication of projects and to monitor progress of all candidates in the portfolio. “Government and industry are much closer collaborators in the biodefense sector than ever before,” said Ram May-Ron, Vice President of FreeMind. “The efforts cited above and the sheer volume of information now being exchanged signals much more clarity of communication and bodes well for better and more targeted grants and contracts for important emerging science.”
The discussion will be posted on the FreeMind Web site, www.freemindconsultants.com, in the next few weeks. |