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ROUNDTABLE leaders LIFESCIENCELEADER.COM APRIL 2014 42 Learn more about Tria OA solutions at CRFHEALTH.COM With Tria OA solutions, it's never been faster or easier to collect Clinical Outcome Assessments. most active guy in the industry right now. What's your total view of the opportunities presented, deep dives, number of deals, and so forth? GOLUMBESKI: Oh, that's a really good question. We have a process that's probably not disparate from other large companies. An amazing amount of information comes in from partner seekers, from writing us letters to calling a board member. We get hundreds of company disclosures, but out of every 100 that come in, we may decide to ask for more information from 10 to 15 of them, maybe sign CDAs (confidential disclosure agreements) on eight or 10 of those, and probably end up doing due diligence on only three or four. My group tries not to burden the rest of the organization with too many projects because, although our job is to do deals, we're going to look deeply at something before involving the clinical people, finance people, or the top people. So we usually have a fairly high rate of attrition before that stage. PURCELL: Have you ever eliminated one, in retrospect, that you wish you hadn't? GOLUMBESKI: I'm sure it's happened, but I honestly can't think of one off the top of my head. We try to set the filter wide enough, if you will, so that we don't have that happen. So far, I believe our selection process has mostly gone well. But going into the next two to three years, I'm not concerned at all that Celgene will run out of financial resources, corporate resolve, or CEO and board support, which I must say is exemplary. I'm just worried that the assets are getting harder and harder to find. PURCELL: Versus five years ago? GOLUMBESKI: In my mind, no doubt. PURCELL: No doubt. GOLUMBESKI: I've seen a lot of data, bad and good. If I put my time at Novartis and Celgene together, I've had the privilege of seeing everything in oncology for 13 years now — everything from early stage to on-market — and there were always some interesting things going into the clinic. Now, there are a few drugs out there, but the predictions for future assets are not robust. MOCH: Is that because of the number of new technologies and products or because of the prices of new technologies and products? company's clinical development potential. But the pool of candidates for such deals is shrinking, raising the stakes of success or failure and amplifying stock-price volatility. PURCELL: George, you're probably the VALUATION VALIDATION Partnerships and other deals with major pharma and biotech companies may rein- force trust and perception of value in a THE ART OF OPTIMIZING SMALL BIOTECH MARKET CAPS— FROM SCIENTIFIC DREAMS TO STRATEGIC REALITY By W. Koberstein B i o _ I n v e s t o r _ F o r u m . i n d d 8 Bio_Investor_Forum.indd 8 3 / 2 4 / 2 0 1 4 3 : 5 8 : 2 7 P M 3/24/2014 3:58:27 PM