Dennis Goldberg runs the ultimate virtual biotech company. He is the CEO of neXus therapeutics, which he runs alone out of his living room and funds through his Schwab account. All of the research work on his experimental cholesterol drug is handled by a CRO and Goldberg handles the negotiations with manufacturers as well as the FDA.
"Normally you get this into a big company and you get all the bells and whistles and you're spending all this stuff on overhead," Goldberg tells NPR, who interviewed him along with a number of his contract workers. "You can spend easily $60, $80 million."
Goldberg, though, says he can get his program in shape for a possible licensing pact with only $6 million. The NPR interview, though, also makes it clear that you can't do virtual biotechs in every pocket of the globe. Boston's big drug development hub has bred a generation of experts able to provide expert assistance to drug developers like neXus.
"From top-flight intellectual property attorneys, project managers, labs, facilities--it's all here available, really at a moment's notice," says Mike Webb, a former Big Pharma exec who's now lining up talent for virtual developers.
- here's the story from NPR