To Bolster Pipeline, Glaxo Exec Scouts Prospects

For the 8,000 drug-company executives, investors and others attending the annual J.P. Morgan health-care conference in San Francisco, the last few days have been a marathon of morning-to-night meetings.

But the industry executives do it because of the potential payoff: new deals with other companies to build up drug-research pipelines and improved lines of communication with existing partners and shareholders.

Consider Ian Tomlinson, a senior vice president at drug giant GlaxoSmithKline who heads up biopharmaceuticals research and development as well as business development. His mission is to scout other companies developing experimental drugs that Glaxo might like to license or acquire. About half of Glaxo’s R&D pipeline comes from outside its own laboratories.

Tomlinson and a team of about 50 Glaxo employees were encamped in several meeting rooms at a hotel near the site of the conference. They welcomed more than 300 prospective business partners over a three-day period, and held meetings with venture capitalists who are nurturing drug start-ups.

The Glaxo team isn’t alone. Several rivals, including Pfizer, established similar beachheads in nearby hotels, feeding off the flow of biotechnology executives to the conference. Industry executives also met with investors, either one-on-one or in groups. Those who couldn’t find empty meeting rooms spilled into lobbies, restaurants and nearby park benches.

In an interview, Tomlinson said his goal is “to access the best science wherever it is.” He hopes to find the “hidden gems” among the hundreds of prospective partners. “Every kind of deal is in scope,” he said, including license deals and acquisitions.

U.K.-based Glaxo is seeking to bolster its drug pipeline in the therapeutic categories it has identified as priorities, which include oncology, immunology, respiratory illnesses and infectious diseases. The company, which makes the asthma drug Advair, is trying to bring new products to market to offset generic competition for older drugs.

And what has Tomlinson found this week? He’s not naming names, but “there’s definitely some stuff that’s quite exciting, and we’ll follow up on,” he said.

“I’m sure deals will flow from the discussions we’ve had this week.”

Although there is some optimism among the prospective partners he has met, many are nervous about how they will maintain funding, Tomlinson said. Funding for drug start-ups has been tight the past few years.

Tomlinson, a molecular biologist by training, can empathize because he was once on the other side of the table. He co-founded a biotech company, Domantis, which was acquired by Glaxo in 2007.

Smaller companies aren’t the only prospective partners for Glaxo. The company remains open to collaborations with its large rivals, such as its deal to co-market Amgen’s bone-building drug Prolia.

“I can see us doing deals with other big pharmaceutical companies to share risk around certain assets,” Tomlinson said.

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