Every
industry has its underdogs. An interesting fact about the
pharmaceutical industry is that the biggest and most prosperous
companies only hold a small percentage of the total market share. Also,
the pharmaceutical industry is one that is host to many small venture
companies that all introduce new and innovative concepts, ideas, and
technologies to the playing field, and consequently, when added together
they make up the large majority of the market.
Archemix
is one of those small companies that have recently made a big
footprint. It is a small Massachusetts based company with less than one
hundred employees and a small building, but it is newly emerging on the
radar that big players like Baxter International and Eli Lilly are
beginning to pay attention to. Archemix has raked in over $100 million
in sales and development pacts. The company has a simple strategy that
is focused on “company's platform aptamer
technology--synthetically-derived oligonucleotides, or short nucleic
acid sequences, that bind to protein targets--to provide new
therapeutics to advance for rare hematological disorders” and to work
with big companies such as Eli Lilly, which have big connections and
resources to help smaller companies like Archemix.
Another
new emerging company in the industry is Intradigm. Recently they have
merged with Silence Therapeutics to provide innovative RNAi treatments
to heal and prevent serious diseases. Their business strategy revolves
around the building, protecting, and commercializing RNAi therapeutics.
Silence/Intradigm have a strong portfolio of intellectual property,
owning over 200 patents. Currently they hold a market cap of over $20
million and this number is expected to climb as innovation soars.
Overall,
big pharma companies may have brilliant marketing strategies and
patents to blockbuster drugs, but small emerging companies have the
clean ethics record, motivation, and innovative creativity, which
attributes to their overwhelming total market share.
-Djeki Bidjerano
Sources:
http://www.fiercebiotech.com/pages/emerging-drug-developers
http://www.archemix.com/website/products.php
http://www.genomeweb.com/rnai/silence-merge-intradigm-bid-create-top-rnai-drug-delivery-player
http://www.fiercebiotech.com/special-reports/emerging-drug-developer-archemix
http://www.fiercebiotech.com/special-reports/emerging-drug-developer-intradigm
Wow, I had never even heard of the companies that you brought up in the post, Jake. Would you mind explaining the RNAi treatments though? I'm at a loss for what they are. I'd also like to know a little more about how Archemix made that huge a revenue chunk with there treatments. Do you have that info?
ReplyDeleteRNAi treatment is short for RNA Interference treatment. Basically, the main idea of RNAi treatment is removing or "turning off" a certain gene in the RNA. This is a huge breakthrough in the pharmaceuticals world because it will lead to fast new innovative drugs that will be safer. Archemix is one of the pioneers of this new type of treatment.
ReplyDeleteBased on what you say here I wouldn't be surprised if one of the big companies tried to buy out Archemix. Especially when things like RNAi could be used to fill their product pipe line
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a pretty incredible treatment to me. If it's actually successful and viable market options I would not be surprised to see a bidding war go down between the big players in the industry.
ReplyDelete