What is a Contract Research Organization?
A contract research organization (CRO) is a firm that provides services to pharmaceutical companies around the conduct of various research activities including activities in discovery, preclinical, clinical development, or any other research activity including real world evidence generation. CROs have grown in use in recent years as pharma and biotech companies try to remain lean in terms of internal organizations.
Pharma companies contract with CROs to execute on specific studies and they own the overall direction of the study and what should be done including in the execution phase around specific decisions that need to be made.
...
What are Biobucks?
Biobucks are commitments for the provision of future money contingent on certain outcomes that companies may include as part of business development or licensing deals. These future provisions may depend on hitting certain sales, clinical, or regulatory milestones (such as a dollar amount of sales per quarter, positive readouts in a certain phase of development, or FDA approval).
Biobucks often headline deals due to the appeal associated with high dollar values, but critics suggest that the upfront payouts are often more important given the general risk associated with achieving milestones.
...
What are biotech or pharma hubs?
There are a few geographic areas in the world where there is an especially high concentration of biopharma companies. The two largest biotech hubs are in the San Francisco and Boston/Cambridge areas in the United States. New Jersey and the Philadelphia area also have a high concentration of larger pharma companies. Smaller hubs in the US as found in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina and San Diego.
...
What is Business Development and Licensing?
Business development and licensing (BD&L) in biopharma refers to assessment and execution of potential opportunities for partnerships, acquisitions, mergers, and other deal-making. Professionals in BD&L follow developments in research and development at other companies and in the general scientific community and conduct due diligence on specific opportunities. There is typically a very rigorous process of due diligence in an attempt to de-risk opportunities before a company commits to an agreement.
...