Closing Plenary
The Last Word: Forecasting 2010
October 29, 2009
4:00 p.m. - 5:15 p.m.
Twin Peaks North/South
The prospects for an IPO window, in addition to new investment models, creative big pharma pipeline deals, government research funding and healthcare reform – are key catalysts for the growth of the biotech industry in 2010. What do we need to offset investor reticence around drug development risk and to reinvigorate public capital access and capital inflows into the biotech sector again? Which companies are likely to benefit? Is it possible to anticipate which business models or strategies will be out of favor? This year’s BIO Investor Forum closing panel will focus on upcoming milestones, events in the industry that might signal, despite a challenging environment, the biotechnology industry is poised for a new phase of growth.
Moderator:
- George Milstein, Managing Director, Healthcare Mergers and Acquisitions, Wedbush PacGrow Life Sciences
- Michelle S. Doig, Principal, Corporate Finance, Abingworth
- Howard Furst, MD, Partner, Deerfield Management
- Evan McCulloch, CFA, Vice President and Portfolio Manager, Franklin Templeton Investments
- Oleg Nodelman, Porfolio Manager, Biotechnology Value Fund, LP
- Deepa Pakianathan, Ph.D, Partner, Delphi Ventures
Who's Who
Michelle S. Doig
Michelle has 13 years experience advising life sciences companies on private placements, public equity financing and M&A transactions. Michelle was formerly Director, Corporate Finance and Advisory, at Bioscience Managers in the UK. Previously she was a life sciences investment banker with Lehman Brothers International (London), JP Morgan/H&Q (New York) and Morgan Stanley (Toronto and New York). Michelle has executed more than 20 equity and convertible transactions and numerous IPOs, private placements and M&A transactions for companies such as Gilead, Illumina, Labcyte and Sepracor. She graduated with a degree in Business Administration from the University of Western Ontario. At Abingworth, Michelle advises on funding and re-financing of portfolio companies and expanding relationships within the VC community.
Howard Furst, MD
Howard Furst, MD, is currently a partner at Deerfield Management, a healthcare investment fund based in New York City. He is primarily responsible for overseeing the firm?s private investments, which may include typical venture investments, or structured investments in public companies. Prior to joining Deerfield, Dr. Furst was the portfolio manager for the healthcare group at Magnetar Capital. Prior to that he was a Principal at Maverick Capital where he was responsible for the management of biopharmaceutical investments in the public and private markets. Prior to joining Maverick in 2000, Dr. Furst was a Fellow in the University of Pennsylvania?s Renal, Electrolyte and Hypertension Division. Before being selected for this Fellowship, he was the Senior Chief Medical Resident at New York University. Dr. Furst received an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania with a dual major in Finance and Health Care Administration and an MD from the New York University School of Medicine. Dr. Furst received a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Furst is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Coalition for the Homeless in New York.
George Milstein
George is a Managing Director in the investment banking group and runs the Healthcare M&A practice for Wedbush PacGrow. He also sits on the M&A commitment committee for the firm. Previously, George was Head of Investment banking for Pacific Growth Equities. He joined Pacific Growth Equities in 1997 as a Managing Director and was an investment banker with Robertson, Stephens & Company, where he focused on emerging growth technology investment banking prior to Pacific Growth. He received his J.D. from the University of Arizona and his BS in Biology from the University of Southern California.
Evan McCullough, CFA
Evan McCulloch is a vice president and portfolio manager for Franklin Advisers, Inc. Mr. McCulloch also specialises in research analysis of the health care industry; including pharmaceuticals, health care information systems/internet and health care providers.
Mr. McCulloch joined Franklin Templeton Investments in 1992 as a management trainee. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a member of the Association for Investment Management and Research (AIMR) and the Security Analysts of San Francisco (SAs/f).
Oleg Nodelman
Mr. Nodelman is a Portfolio Manager of the Biotechnology Value Fund, a biotech focused investment fund in San Francisco where he is responsible for evaluating investment opportunities, in-depth scientific due diligence and working with company management on strategic and financial matters. BVF was founded in 1993 and is focused on both public and private therapeutic discovery and development ventures. Mr. Nodelman has served on the Boards of several seed stage start-ups. Before joining BVF, Mr. Nodelman was a consultant with Mercer Management Consulting: a strategy firm. At Mercer, he worked with senior management from companies in a variety of industries to develop and implement long-term strategy and build shareholder value. Mr. Nodelman holds a Bachelor of Science in International Affairs and a minor in Science in Technology from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He was also the recipient of an honors certificate in International Business Diplomacy from the Landegger Program at Georgetown. Mr. Nodelman speaks fluent Russian, and conversational Spanish and French.
Deepa Pakianathan, Ph.D
Deepa joined Delphi Ventures in 2001 and leads the firms’ biotechnology investment activities. Prior to joining Delphi, Deepa was a Vice President in the healthcare group at JP Morgan where she was involved in healthcare M&A transactions worth in excess of $6 billion and public offerings for biotechnology companies that raised more than $9 billion in capital. From 1997 to 1998, Deepa was a biotechnology research analyst at Genesis Merchant Group. She worked as a postdoctoral scientist in the Immunology Department at Genentech Corporation from 1993 to 1997, where she evaluated chemokines and chemokine receptors as targets for therapeutic intervention.