Investor plan

An investor plan has the same elements, but is an external marketing document, typically directed at raising money from investors. It needs to convey the competence of the team and instiU confidence in their abdity to make the commercialization happen by addressing all elements of taking the product to market. 

The financial heart of a biotech story is a positive risk-adjusted net present value (rNPV). If the projected payback could happen very quickly, and if investors regarded a business plan as a sure thing (risk-free), then the "value" of the story would simply be the payback minus the investment. However, biotech paybacks do not happen quickly and are certainly not risk free. Hence, investors discount the payback value to reflect (1) the time value of their money and (2) the risk of failure. If discounted payback values are thought to exceed the required investments, stories get funded if this rNPV is perceived as negative, the flow of money stops. 

These plans envision composition-of-matter patents on drug molecules for which development timelines and market potentials can be estimated. Product stories are the clearest, most rational plans because profitable sales can be projected and rNPVs calculated. On the other hand, investors usually perceive higher risks because the rNPVs tend to be dominated by single product candidates for which historical failure rates are high. Examples of product stories include Amgen s development of Epogen and Amylin s development of Symlin. 

These plans envision assembling a portfolio of in-licensed drug candidates for which collective development risk is deemed to be relatively low. The idea is to in-license molecules that either are too specialized (small market potential) for large pharma or are not visible to their radar because they come from places like Eastern Europe. These stories are favorites of professional investors, because rNPVs can be calculated with relatively low development risk on the basis of demonstrated clinical utility and/or pipeline diversity. Examples include Dura Pharmaceuticals, who marketed prescription products that treat infectious and respiratory diseases, and Gilead who marketed antiviral nucleotides discovered in the Czech Republic. 

As investor sentiment waxes and wanes — along with successes and failures among companies — the relative popularity of these biotech categories changes. There are, however, a few universal truths which underlie all business plans and which enhance investor enthusiasm and occasionally cause Buy Side stampedes. 

Most professional investors are clueless about the science underlying biotech companies (and, toey would be quick to say so). As a consequence, who endorses a biotech plan usually... 

A corollary of Kleiner s First Law is, "Raise money when you do not need it." If you wait until your need for cash is desperate, you can be sure the financial terms will be unattractive. The less you need the money, the more leverage you will have with investors. In fact, a general principle to keep in mind is that investors love to put their money where it is not needed for survival, but rather is needed to expand the upside potential of the business plan. 

The plan will eventually prescribe a likely filing date for a marketing authorisation application (MAA) (product hcence). This date is vital and when the plan becomes public information, any slippage in the date is likely to impact on the share price of the company. Accordingly, senior members of the company must be confident that the date can be met. There will always be pressure to bring the date forward but this has a cost in resources, and risks damaging credibility with investors if the accelerated timelines cannot be met. 

The chemicals and allied products industry is an investor in basic research— the planned search for new knowledge without reference to... 

The recommendations are to concentrate the initial planning as extension of ongoing projects (EC Tacis and U.S. TDI), by carrying out a simplified reservoir modelling of the selected formation and, most importantly, by making sure that the project structure, and the commercial and managerial aspects are defined in a way that could be of interest to potential investors. 

Web site for the Dreyfus Founders Fund. Excellent source for retirement-planning information and tools. (Many funds require you to be an investor to access their planning tools. This one does not.)... 

Web site of Morningstar Investor Services. A great source for financial information and planning tools. 

Mesa Power LLC, headed by legendary energy investor T. Boone Pickens, has been making headlines with its plans for a vast wind farm, the Pampa Wind Project, in the Texas panhandle that may eventually include 2,700 wind turbines generating 4,000 megawatts of electricity. Pickens is... 

William J. Harvey, VP-Planning Kathleen H. Forte, VP-Public Affairs Carl J. Lukach, VP-Investor Rel. 

Susumu Koike, Exec. VP-Tech. Semiconductors Ikusaburo Kashima, Dir.-Corp. Legal Affairs Takahiro Mori, Managing Dir.-Planning Yoichi Nagata, Dir.-Overseas Investor Rel. 

During the subsequent holding period, the investors implement the strategic, organizational, and operational changes prescribed in the initial business plan, and realize any operational improvements. In practice, this is often an iterative rather than a linear process, with the business plan undergoing constant updates. 

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