By Alejandro Zamorano, VP of Business Development, LSN

LSN maintains regular dialogue with a broad spectrum of contract research organizations (CROs) – from top-tier full service organizations, to small niche-specialized research companies; some are customers of the LSN Company Platform, and others are friends.  Every year we talk to hundreds of business executives in the field. Based on our market insight, here are the top trends we see in 2015.

The Monetization of Data

CROs are beginning to realize the power of their clinical data after years of ignoring this information. Some established CROs are even monetizing their data set by anonymizing the data, providing incredible insight to researchers.  This should also help companies on deciding when a trial should be killed, and whether a drug is a worth pursuing when a sub-population seems to respond the treatment. In an ideal world all clinical data should be standardized for analysis, but this is a great first step.

The Death of the Undifferentiated CRO

The CRO industry has exploded over the past 5 years, and competition is fierce. By searching the LSN Company Platform, one can find profiles of 859 clinical trial providers globally. Standing out amongst the vast herd is becoming harder, and most are competing on location, speed and increasingly price. In order to stay competitive sales teams have started to target biotech companies as early as the discovery stage, in order to form a relationship before others come knocking on the door.

To differentiate themselves CROs are developing and in-licensing unique technology platforms such as unique analytics, manufacturing capabilities, animal models, and biologic expression technologies. In 2015, don’t be surprised if CROs start competing with big pharma for access to these unique technology platforms.

The Search for Patients

Finding patients is often the hardest part in putting together a clinical trial, especially if the trial is in a rare disease field. Today CROs are looking to partner with diagnostic companies to identify specific patient populations for future studies. This close collaboration between diagnostic companies and CROs will change the manner in which the industry conducts its business, and will reap huge benefit to patients looking for access new therapeutics.

Exclusive Agreements with Big Pharma

The majority of R&D expenditure is consumed by big pharma and some CROs are tired of competing with others for a slice of the pie. Thus, larger CROs that have the necessary capacity have started to offer their biggest customers massive benefits to form exclusive partnerships. These include reduced pricing, full time core employees, standardized reporting and analytics, increased transparency, and reserved excess capacity in order to provide services on short notice.  The industry is getting more competitive and exclusive structures is just one of the many ways CRO’s are adapting to this environment.

2015 will be an interesting year for CROs, as the increasing competitive nature of the industry will allow only the strongest, most adaptable companies to enjoy market growth. LSN will continue to track the key market dynamics affecting service providers going forward.

By Nono Hu, Senior Manager, Branding & Messaging, LSN

At the fourth Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference, LSN put together 16 biotech and medtech investor panels, in which we are featuring five major investors actively investing in and working with therapeutic companies in phase I and phase II of clinical trials. If you have entered into clinical trials (or are preparing to), the panel can help you to understand the keys to positioning your opportunity at this stage and how best to approach investors in the initial outreach. The panelists answered a variety of questions, including: What types of things do you look for in an investment opportunity? Do you prefer companies with a platform approach or those focused on single assets? What do you think of build-to-buy partnerships with big pharma? What company profile is appropriate for venture funding? How do you manage an investment for success? What is the best way to approach you?

Moderator:

Neil Littman, Business Development Officer of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Panelists:

Daniel O’Mahony, Partner, Seroba Kernel Life Sciences

Lisa Rhoads, Managing Director, Easton Capital

Mike Dybbs, Principal, New Leaf Venture Partners

Sam Hall, Principal, Apple Tree Partners

By Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, LSN

Last week, LSN moved its Redefining Early Stage Investment (RESI) Conference series from Boston to San Francisco to partake in the annual migratory life science industry gathering. I am happy to report that RESI 4 was a success.  Attendees included over 200 early stage investors, 200 early stage biotech and medtech entrepreneurs and 100 service providers participating in early stage funding panels, partnering and workshops.  Forbes made mention of RESI in their coverage of the JPM Healthcare event. 

The big news is not the size of RESI, but the two compelling constituencies that attended and helped to create such a unique and dynamic event.  The first constituency consists of the 10 categories of global investors attending including angel groups, corporate venture capital, foundations, family office and private wealth funds, government organizations, hedge funds, institutional alternative investors, large pharma and medtech companies, private equity firms and venture capital funds.  The second constituency, the scientist-entrepreneurs from the biotech and medtech arena, are all actively fundraising and therefore want to be as efficient as possible with their efforts. These fundraising CEOs not only need to meet with investors that are a fit for their stage and sector, but also understand the current investor landscape and how best to navigate within it.  Take a look at the program guide and you will understand why RESI is a success and why we are garnering the attention of the industry.

RESI is the only conference that is totally dedicated to mapping out and interacting with the early stage life science investment domain. LSN started RESI because we had determined that there was a need specifically for early stage investment focus.  The life science universe is vast and most conferences do a good job at broad industry coverage but RESI wanted to be micro focused.  The glut of government funded companies with great data and the wealth of academic and pharma scientists spinning up their own firms called for a place for all to gather on a regular basis.

We hope to add a few more venues to augment the Fall Boston RESI conference and the January JPM event, so stay tuned.