At the San Francisco Business Times event that was held this past Friday in San Francisco, CA, “The Art of the Deal: Dealmakers who are reshaping Bay Area Biotechnology,” panelists Mark McDade, CEO of Protein Design Labs, George Scangos, CEO of Exelixis, Joe McCracken, Vice President of Development at Genentech, and Nick Simon, Managing Director of Clarus Ventures shared their insights on modern biotech dealmaking.

The speakers indicated that as the industry matures, deals are becoming increasingly complex, so the parties no longer look to get mere cash from the party across the table, but instead are looking to secure valuable partnerships and to tap into new resources and compatible goals. In addition, the speakers indicated that modern dealmaking is heavily influenced by the prevalence of underlying relationships in the industry, since the biotech indusry is a relatively small world where many of the players have a previous history of working with other players at prior companies.

Another trend in modern dealmaking is that biotech companies are increasingly looking to do deals with large biotech companies, instead of limiting deals to just large pharmaceutical companies, since they perceive the big biotech world to have a better understanding of the issues facing smaller biotech companies. Also, there is more of a perception that the biotech company can better preserve its independence and continue to pursue its long-term goals by entering into deals with large biotech companies, as opposed to a deal with a large pharmaceutical company.

The presentation struck a chord with the audience by conveying just how complex modern dealmaking has become, and for the service providers in the audience, it conveyed the importance of understanding everything that the parties will be bringing to the table, including the parties’ underlying relationships and their long-term goals for the company. We as service providers need to listen to our clients and push the deals forward that best advance their plans for the company, and to recognize when underlying issues are affecting the negotiations.

The event Biotechnology Law 2005 will be held November 15, 2005 at the PLI California Center in San Francisco, CA. The event will address the latest developments in patents, as well as advice on structuring biotech startups, the proper valuation of biotech and pharma inventions, tax implications for biotech deals, and critical ethical issues in biotechnology today.

California’s Healthcare Policy Forum, sponsored by the California Healthcare Institute, will be held November 17-18, 2005 in San Francisco, and will bring together executives from biomedical device and pharmaceutical companies, leaders from academic research institutions in California, and state policymakers to discuss public policy challenges facing the bioscience community’s work and needs.

The Second Annual Law Seminars International Conference: Running the Race With Biotechnology will take place on November 17-18, 2005 at the Hilton Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California, and will provide an overview of current legal issues in the biotech industry.

The event The Checkered Past and Promising Future of Antibody Therapeutics will be held at on Wednesday, November 16, 2005 at 6:00 p.m. in the Clarion Hotel, 401 East Millbrae Avenue, Millbrae, California. C. Geoff Davis, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Research at Abgenix will speak, examining the technological breakthroughs that have elevated monoclonal antibodies to the forefront of biologics.

The event Biotechnology Law 2005 will be held November 15, 2005 at the PLI California Center in San Francisco, CA. The event will address the latest developments in patents, as well as advice on structuring biotech startups, the proper valuation of biotech and pharma inventions, tax implications for biotech deals, and critical ethical issues in biotechnology today.

The event U.S.-India Synergy in Life Sciences will be held on Saturday, November 12th from 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Clarion Hotel, 401 E. Millbrae Avenue, Millbrae, CA 94030. The one day symposium will address cost and value arbitrage in the therapeutics and diagnostics areas related to reseach and development, manufacturing, clinical development, and market opportunities.

The BayBio Pantheon Awards will be presented on November 10, 2006 at 6:30 at Herbst Pavilion at Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA. The awards ceremony will recognize excellence in the local biotech community.

The Biotech Investing Conference will take place on November 2-3, 2005 at the Westin San Francisco Airport at 1 Bayshore Highway, Millbrae, CA 94030, and will address such issues as investing opportunities in the current biotech market, opportunities in biotech deal flow, and new models for funding R & D/university spinouts.

The event The Patenting of Life Forms: 25 Years since the Chakrabarty Patent will be held on Wednesday, October 26th from 6:00-8:00 at Palo Alto Research Center (“PARC”) , 3333 Coyote Hill Rd., Palo Alto, CA. The speakers will include Mark E. Andrews, BioTech Nation, National Public Radio; Mark Bosse, Gilead Sciences; Dr. Ananda Chakrabarty, University of Illinois at Chicago; George Elliot, Technology Center 1600, USPTO; Elizabeth Howard,Orrick, Herrington, and Sutcliffe LLP.