Venture Capital News
Biopharmaceutical Industry Research & Development Tops $55 Billion In 2006
New statistics just released reveal that R&D investments in new medicines by the biopharmaceutical industry was over $55 billion in 2006, according to a combined analysis conducted by Burrill & Company, a San Francisco based global leader in life sciences with principal activities in Venture Capital, Merchant Banking and Media and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).
"This is the third year that we have joined with the PhRMA to report industry-wide biopharmaceutical research and development expenditures," said G. Steven Burrill, CEO of Burrill & Company. "The steady growth of R&D investment continues to support important advances in better medicines and new treatments for patients made by research scientists and physicians. The over $55 billion invested in R&D last year represents an almost 8% increase over 2005 industry expenditures."
PhRMA's biotechnology and pharmaceutical research member companies reached a record $43 billion in 2006 (up from $39.9 billion in 2005), according to PhRMA's Annual Member Survey. The increased investment in biomedical R&D in 2006 continues 26 years of strong growth in R&D investments by America's research-based pharmaceutical companies -- in 1980 member companies invested $2 billion in R&D. When factored together, the total investments in biotechnology and pharmaceutical R&D by both PhRMA member companies and non-PhRMA members ($12.2 billion) reached a record $55.2 billion in 2006, according to a Burrill & Company analysis for PhRMA.
Burrill & Company routinely reports R&D expenses among other key financial parameters for the universe of U.S. publicly listed biotech companies through its annual report on the industry (sourced from company reports filed with the SEC). To create a comparable report additive to PhRMA's annual membership survey, Burrill applied a set of pre-determined criteria to their annual biotech report to identify and select non-member companies. Specifically:
- Companies must be based in the United States of America
- Companies must not be a member or member subsidiary of PhRMA and,
- Companies must meet the "human healthcare focus" test, i.e., their R&D expenses are principally for research and development of new medicines for healthcare.
Seasoned Executive and Technology Funding Veteran Keith Grinstein Joins NetSuite's Board of Directors
NetSuite, Inc., a leader in on-demand business software suites, today announced that Keith Grinstein was appointed to NetSuite's board of directors. Mr. Grinstein has more than fifteen years of executive and board experience spanning across the telecommunications, Internet, and venture capital industries. He currently serves as chairman of Coinstar Inc. and as a member of the board directors and audit committees of F5 Networks, Labor Ready, and Nextera.
Grinstein joins NetSuite's board of directors, which consists of Evan Goldberg, founder and CTO of NetSuite; Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite; Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics, Deborah Farrington, founder and general partner of StarVest Partners, L.P.; Steve Fink, CEO of Lawrence Investments, LLC; and Philip Simon, president of Lawrence Investments, LLC.
Grinstein is a currently a partner of Second Avenue Partners, a venture capital firm which is focused on emerging Internet businesses. He has held a number of senior executive positions, serving previously as Nextel International Inc.'s president and chief executive officer and prior to that as president and chief executive officer of the Aviation Communications Division of AT&T Wireless (formerly McCaw Cellular Communications).
Grinstein is an experienced public company audit committee member and has lectured extensively on Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. In 2003, Grinstein testified in front of the US Senate Banking Committee on behalf of NASDAQ small and mid-cap companies regarding the effects of Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. Mr. Grinstein is also a frequent lecturer on Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley, executive compensation and director duties; and has lectured on director duties at the University of Washington Business School and Seattle University Law School.
A successful venture capitalist, Grinstein was a seed-capital investor in Amazon.com. He is a founding partner of Second Avenue Partners, a VC group funding Pacific Northwest early-stage companies. In addition, he has been a driving force behind structuring a number of leading companies including Pathogenesis, VaxGen, Tegic, HouseValues, Wireless Services, Nordstrom.com of Nordstrom Inc., Superconductor Collider Corporation, Neah Power, Insitu, and Ice Energy.
Earlier in his career, Grinstein held the position of senior VP, general counsel and secretary for Lin Broadcasting and vice president and assistant general counsel for McCaw Cellular Communications.
Grinstein holds a B.A. in education from Yale University and a J.D.magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center.
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Motorola Invests In Tango Networks
Representatives of Motorola, Inc. through Motorola Ventures, its strategic venture capital arm, announced that it has made an equity investment in Tango Networks, Inc., a privately held supplier of hardware and software that integrates mobile phones with corporate telephone networks. Motorola Ventures’ investment was part of Tango’s Series A Financing. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Tango Networks is developing the Abrazo, a mobility solution, which enables any mobile phone to become a PBX extension on an enterprise network. Enterprises are able to manage mobile communications through a corporate-wide mobility policy while enabling end users to effectively integrate their desk and mobile phones into one experience.
As the second most active globally-focused corporate venture capital arm, Motorola Ventures invests in a diversified portfolio of technology firms, and is intensely focused on helping to accelerate Motorola's seamless mobility vision.
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Richard Wong Joins Accel Partners
Representatives of Accel Partners, a leading Silicon Valley venture firm, announced the addition of Richard Wong as a Partner in the Palo Alto office. Mr. Wong has significant entrepreneurial and general management experience, and deep knowledge in the mobile and broadband software markets. In particular, he will add to Accel's expertise and focus on investments in the mobile and convergence software categories.
Some of the firm's investments in mobile and wireless include MetroPCS (currently in registration for its IPO) and Airgo Networks (recently acquired by Qualcomm), as well as earlier successes at Corsair (IPO in 1997) and PageMart Wireless (IPO in 1996). The current Accel mobile/wireless portfolio features emerging leaders such as Amobee, Carrier IQ, Discretix, Icera, Medio, SurfKitchen, Telepo, The Cloud, Trapeze Networks, Ubiquisys, Volantis, and others. Accel pursues the mobile/wireless opportunity set on a global basis, with partners based in Silicon Valley, London, and China.
Wong brings over 15 years of technology experience to Accel Partners in mobile, broadband, messaging, and security software.
Prior to Accel, Wong was SVP/GM of Products at Openwave. In this capacity, Wong launched several of Openwave's most successful products in security, messaging and location-services areas. Wong was previously SVP/GM of Messaging, and Chief Marketing Officer. While at Openwave, Wong founded and chaired the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group, a consortium of ISPs and technology providers working together to combat internet abuse.
Previously Wong was the Chief Marketing Officer and EVP/GM of Value-Added Services at Covad Communications, the DSL provider. Preceding Covad, he was a management consultant for McKinsey & Company, focusing on software and consumer technology. Rich started his career as a Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble.
He holds a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Rich remains active as Executive VP of the MIT Club of Northern California, and board member of the MIT CNC Entrepreneurship Program, and the CTIA Wireless Internet Caucus Leadership Board.
