Opinion: A Big Pharma Biotech Fund

Pharmaceutical companies should deploy cash to fund struggling biotech companies, which could generate much needed new drugs.

Written byMark Kessel

| 4 min read

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The biotech industry, one of the US economy’s most innovative sectors, continues to confront massive challenges in raising vital capital for growth. In addition to threatening the United States’ historical leadership in this area, this mounting problem has important near- and long-term implications for big pharmaceutical companies with pinched R&D budgets struggling to create new drugs, the country’s job growth, and the world’s overall well-being. However, an effective solution can be devised by creating a Biotech Fund that smartly deploys Big Pharma's cash to solve the capital crunch of this critical sector of our economy.

To understand the biotech sector’s capital crisis, consider the wide gulf that exists between the 12–15 year timelines for new drug development and the much shorter time horizons of venture ...

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Meet the Author

Mark Kessel
Mark Kessel is the Chairman of the FIND Board of Directors. He co-founded Symphony Capital LLC, a private equity firm investing in the clinical development programs of biopharmaceutical companies. Kessel was formerly the managing partner of Shearman & Sterling, with day-to-day operating responsibility, and is currently of-counsel to the firm. He is also a member of Fondation Santé and an Editorial Advisor to Nature Biotechnology. He also serves on strategic advisory committees of biotechnology companies. He has served as a director of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, Organovo Holdings, INC, Dynavax Technologies Corporation, OXiGENE, Inc., Antigenics, Inc., Heller Financial Inc., and Harrods (UK) Limited; as a Trustee of the Museum of the City of New York; and on the advisory committee of the Mount Sinai Rape Crisis Center.
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