‘Most of’ biotech industry will outlast recession

May 11, 2009 – 4:42 pm by Michael Christel

That’s the opinion of BIO president and CEO James Greenwood, who recently chatted with a Boston Globe reporter about several issues facing the embattled biotech industry.

Echoing numbers cited in last week’s Ernst and Young report, he says 50% of publicly traded biotech companies are down to their last 12 months of cash, and about 30% down to six months.

So, there’ll be some attrition. But for the most part, we’ll survive.

Mr. Greenwood also addresses the ongoing debate over approving a legislative pathway for biosimilars in the United States, a subject BIO has clear stances on.

We think that the follow-on biologics legislation will pass this year. And it’s not monopoly, but we think the data exclusivity period - the period that the other companies have to wait before they can use our data - we think that should be 12 to 14 years. What Congress will decide remains to be seen.

In March, BIO came out against two similarly crafted biosimilar bills introduced in Washington, one by the House and the other by the Senate. You can read Mr. Greenwood’s statements on both here and here.

With still so much apparent opposition, it’s hard to imagine a soon-to-be compromise that some are predicting. But, of course, it will ultimately be Congress’ call, not the industry’s, and you have to think the pressure to unleash the market for biogenerics in some form or fashion is growing fast. It will interesting to see what happens before the end of the year. R&D Directions will have much more on the topic in our July/August cover story.