All the views fit to tweet

Over the past two weeks I've been tweeting my thoughts about all things biotech. And I have to tell you, it's been a curiously addictive experience.

These short Twitter-grams are usually just a simple shout-out: "Garner proves yet again that one big success in biotech can be worth millions in VC commitments"--about the biotech vet (and Dura founder) who just raised $30 million for another in a string of start-ups. Or they give me a chance to highlight something unique in the news of the day. "Ipsen gets my vote for most intriguing new deal of the week," I tweeted, after the French developer took its first big bite of equity in Inspiration.  

But aside from my own thoughts, moving to the Twitterverse has given me a real education about a back-channel flow of information that's helped me keep tap on things in the industry.

It turns out that there's quite a grapevine of professional biopharma writers on Twitter. Derek Lowe, who blogs on drug discovery, the prolific Mike Huckman at CNBC, Adam Feuerstein at TheStreet, Xconomy's Luke Timmerman and others are all on Twitter. Now I can tap that back channel and learn, in real time, what's on their radar.

For close followers of the news, that can be a valuable experience. "High praise from Adam F.," I tweeted recently, passing on his thoughts about an interesting life sciences outfit. "Exact was probably the best small-cap stock story I heard" at JP Morgan, he messaged. Feuerstein, an experienced biopharma writer at TheStreet, likes nothing better than calling out a company when it's gone off the rails, so when he actually likes a company well enough to sound enthusiastic, I can't ignore it.

Of course, devoted FierceBiotech readers know that Managing Editor Maureen Martino has been tweeting biotech news for more than a year now (follow @FierceBiotech). And Publisher Arsalan Arif (follow @arsalanFierce) chips in with regular comments on the life sciences industry as well as the broader world of business-to-business media. 

Twitter is a handy news service, able to instantly alert you to our headlines for the day. And we'll keep that up. But if you're looking for more insight into what the leading writers in biopharma are focused on, and why, I'd urge you to follow along. I'll guarantee it won't take up a lot of your time. - John Carroll (twitter | email)