Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the key strategies adopted at this point, if a company fails to appeal
to a buyer, there is no ready application for the proprietary
technology, or insufficient funds are made at the initial public
offering (IPO), the company is in dire straits. Ultimately, venture
capitalists want a return on their investment and exit strategies are
therefore extremely important for new companies. The demand to
generate a return provides a significant pressure for new companies
and many do not survive this phase.
Negotiating the valley of death can be one of the most vital
periods in a company's development. Which strategy a company
chooses is a decision best left to management. There are, however, a
variety of opinions about how this process might be supported.
Research also suggests that assisting companies to overcome this
hurdle in business development is an important policy issue for
governments to address (Frank et al., 1996). Moreover, given that
each new industry faces similar difficulties as it matures to market,
government assistance in the early phase is thought to be particularly
vital for ensuring the development of new technologies (Frank et al.,
1996). For the environmental technologies market, for example, a
suggestion made in the mid-1990s was that a similar regulatory
initiative like the US Orphan Drug Act 1983 should be developed to
encourage growth in areas that are not necessarily going to have
highly lucrative markets (Frank et al., 1996).
1.2
Emerging stem cell therapies and the
commercialization of biotechnology
On the one hand, the stem cell sciences are clearly part of the biotech
industry. Most obviously, stem cells are biological in origin and
require a significant amount of technical knowledge to be developed
into viable products. There are a number of similarities in how stem
cell science and biotechnology progress. On the other hand though,
the unique properties of stem cells and the way stem cell products
are developed pose new problems for the traditional commercial
models adopted in the biotechnology industry.
