Mass. Biotech Gathers at World Trade Center

BOSTON--Some criticisms of the pricing practices of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are valid, said Dr. Edward M. Scolnick '61 in yesterday's keynote address at the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council's (MBC) annual meeting.

But Scolnick, who is president of Merck Research Laboratories, said these complaints should not detract from the industries' important contributions to science and world health.

"The pharmaceutical industry has been under criticism [by those who compare] what we produce versus what we charge...some of which is true," Scolnick said. "I don't think the industry has to apologize for anything. It should be very proud of its contributions to medicine."

This year, the MBC expanded its annual meeting at the World Trade Center to a two-day conference of biotechnology business seminars, a science symposium focusing on drug design and nucleic acid-based therapy and a trade exposition by over 150 companies featuring the latest in biotechnology and related products.

The MBC, founded in 1985, is an organization devoted to developing the biotechnology industry in Massachusetts. Its council includes 71 statewide biotechnology companies and 56 associate member organizations.

The council's activities include managing the industry's public relations, lobbying for federal and state regulations that favor the growth of the industry and establishing educational and training programs for future workers.

The conference brought together both financiers and scientists, including Don C. Wiley, chair of Harvard's department of biochemistry and molecular biology.

Participants in yesterday's science seminar discussed the use of DNA and RNA both as diagnostic tools and as drug therapy in the future.

Wednesday's panels focused on the "biotechnology cash crunch" and the "U.S. health care crisis and biotechnology."

Underscoring the costs involved, David H. McCallum, co-head of the investment banking division at Hambrecht and Quist, said it costs approximately $1 billion to form a Fully Integrated Pharmaceutical Company (FIPCO). FIPCOs are companies which participate in both basic research and product distribution.

The FIPCO is one model for biotech companies, but new models are explored under financial constraints McCallum said.

The cost of producing a single drug today is about $250 million, and it takes two or three drugs to make a pharmaceutical company successful, McCallum said. But he also said he believes the key to successful biotech ventures may lie in "research-intensive and distribution-deficient" companies.

McCallum cautioned the industry and the nation not to become complacent. Noting the increase in foreign competition, McCallum said there was a "stronger and deeper appreciation for the power of biopharmaceuticals" in Europe, and that biotechnology "will be a centerpiece industry" in Japan.

Also on Wednesday, Mitchel Sayare, CEO of ImmunoGen, Inc., said the American university system, which is vital to this country's biotechnology industry, is "in danger" because of dwindling government funding for university-based research.

"The university system is a technological engine envied throughout the world," Sayare said.

Sayare said higher education needs more support from the industrial sector. But he said that biotechnology stocks have lost approximately half their value since the election of President Clinton, and he projected that federal budget cutting would adversely affect university funding

The council's activities include managing the industry's public relations, lobbying for federal and state regulations that favor the growth of the industry and establishing educational and training programs for future workers.

The conference brought together both financiers and scientists, including Don C. Wiley, chair of Harvard's department of biochemistry and molecular biology.

Participants in yesterday's science seminar discussed the use of DNA and RNA both as diagnostic tools and as drug therapy in the future.

Wednesday's panels focused on the "biotechnology cash crunch" and the "U.S. health care crisis and biotechnology."

Underscoring the costs involved, David H. McCallum, co-head of the investment banking division at Hambrecht and Quist, said it costs approximately $1 billion to form a Fully Integrated Pharmaceutical Company (FIPCO). FIPCOs are companies which participate in both basic research and product distribution.

The FIPCO is one model for biotech companies, but new models are explored under financial constraints McCallum said.

The cost of producing a single drug today is about $250 million, and it takes two or three drugs to make a pharmaceutical company successful, McCallum said. But he also said he believes the key to successful biotech ventures may lie in "research-intensive and distribution-deficient" companies.

McCallum cautioned the industry and the nation not to become complacent. Noting the increase in foreign competition, McCallum said there was a "stronger and deeper appreciation for the power of biopharmaceuticals" in Europe, and that biotechnology "will be a centerpiece industry" in Japan.

Also on Wednesday, Mitchel Sayare, CEO of ImmunoGen, Inc., said the American university system, which is vital to this country's biotechnology industry, is "in danger" because of dwindling government funding for university-based research.

"The university system is a technological engine envied throughout the world," Sayare said.

Sayare said higher education needs more support from the industrial sector. But he said that biotechnology stocks have lost approximately half their value since the election of President Clinton, and he projected that federal budget cutting would adversely affect university funding