A biotech manager's handbook lays out - in a simple, straightforward manner - for the manager or would-be entrepreneur the basic principles of running a biotech company. Most managers in biotechnology companies are working in their first company or in their first managerial role. Their expertise and experience in the scientific part of the work can be taken as a given but there is a whole range of other skills to be learned and areas of expertise to come to terms with. Small companies do not have big budgets to hire people or time to become an expert in so many areas. The book starts by outlining the state of the biopharmaceutical industry and goes on to explain the importance of planning (no matter what the size of the company). Succeeding chapters deal with the basics of intellectual property, perspectives from a university technology transfer office and how to raise some initial funding from an investor and entrepreneur.

Author Biography

Dr Michael O'Neill has had a career of more than 20 years working in neuroscience research in the pharmaceutical industry, working for Merck, Laboratorios Almirall and Eli Lilly. Michael's career has given him an expert knowledge of neuroscience balanced with a strong grasp of strategic principles drug discovery and development. Michael has authored over 80 papers, book chapters, patents and abstracts. He has presented his work at major international scientific conferences. He has held an adjunct appointment and has supervised PhD students at various leading universities. Michael is an accomplished research leader with extensive program and portfolio management experience. He has lead specialist and multidisciplinary teams in the UK, Europe and in the US. As a consultant Michael has helped companies of all sizes from university start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. This book is the distillation of all that experience. Michael Hopkins is a biologist is currently a Research Fellow at Science Policy research Unit, University of Sussex, and a Visiting Research Fellow at Cass Business School (London). He specialises in the study of innovation systems related to innovations in healthcare, spanning public and private sectors, products (e.g. drugs) and services (e.g. diagnostic testing). He has published widely in natural science and social science fields on the role of intellectual property, regulation and finance in innovation (including in Nature, Nature Biotechnology and Research Policy - the top journals in their respective fields). From 2004-2006 Michael was a Research Fellow of the Economic & Social Research Council and Medical Research Council. Additionally he has worked on a wide range of research projects funded by the European Commission's framework programmes, and Joint Research Centre, the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts, the UK's Department of Trade and Industry, Human Genetics Commission and Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property.