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development stage companies as an important source of innovation and new products to
supplement R&D pipelines and drive future growth. Strong growth potential is critical for
these companies to support their valuation metrics, especially in light of expected patent
expirations on their commercial products. In total, over $290 billion of revenue is at risk from
patent expirations between now and 2018.29 The large and mid-sized companies are addressing
this strategic need to a large extent through increased acquisitions and partnerships with
development stage companies that have maturing assets. The Fund Managers expect this
dynamic to increase competition between the larger strategic players in the industry as they vie
for the most interesting companies with maturing development stage assets. The development
stage companies should have strong negotiating leverage in these deal discussions, which
should drive premium valuations on acquisitions and attractive terms on partnerships.
The increased strategic need for acquisitions and partnerships comes at a time when the large
and many of the mid-sized companies in the industry are in a strong financial position to
complete high value deals. The top ten pharmaceutical companies have a total of $140 billion in
cash on their balance sheets today and have a combined market capitalization of over $1.3
trillion.*° A relatively new set of well funded potential acquirers and/or partners has emerged
over the last decade, as many of the mid-sized biotech companies have seen their commercial
businesses thrive, and now have strong revenue and profit growth. Since 2002, the number of
public biotech companies with annual profit (EBIT) over $100 million has doubled to 16, and the
combined annual profit of these companies has increased 4.5 times to $16.6 billion.*!_ This has
significantly increased the number of companies in the industry with the financial wherewithal
to complete large cash transactions. At the same time, the industry’s R&D productivity has
been disappointing in terms of new products generated by massive internal R&D budgets. To
address the gaps created in their R&D pipelines, most large and mid-sized players have shifted
a large percentage of their R&D budgets away from internal R&D projects and have increased
investment in “externalizing” a large portion of their R&D. These companies have slashed
internal R&D budgets, closed major R&D facilities, and made large cuts to headcount. It is
estimated that the pharmaceutical industry cut R&D spending by 5.7% in the U.S. and 2.2%
globally in 2012 alone,*? and this trend has continued in 2013. Most large and mid-sized
biopharmaceutical companies now have large internal groups that include a combination of
business and scientific resources that are dedicated exclusively to external search and
evaluation, and are tasked with finding opportunities for mergers, acquisitions, and
partnerships that will bring in new technology. Some have taken this strategy even further and
have set up their own internal venture capital investment groups with the belief that by co-
investing with more experienced institutional venture investors they can improve their
visibility into the latest innovations and improved access to the best opportunities. The Fund
Managers believe that this combination of financial strength and strategic need to source more
products than internal R&D efforts can produce will lead to a significant increase in deal
activity, creating a strong exit environment for smaller development stage companies for the
foreseeable future.
29 eValuatePharma
3° Burrill Biotech 2012 Report
" New Leaf Analysis of public company financial data as provided by Bloomberg
» Battelle R&D Magazine Annual Global R&D Funding Forecast
37 CONTROL NUMBER 257 - CONFIDENTIAL
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