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Wasting cash—the decline of the British biotech sector

Nature Biotechnology volume 27, pages 531–537 (2009)Cite this article

Undercapitalization and overgenerous boardroom compensation for management have been major contributors to the poor performance of UK biotech.

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Figure 1: Longevity analysis of UK biotech companies.
Figure 2: Private investment in Oxford and Cambridge biotech clusters.
Figure 3: Private finance versus exit valuation.
Figure 4: Boardroom remuneration and company success.
Figure 5: Boardroom shareholding.
Figure 6: Private company CEO salaries.
Figure 7: International experience in European biotech CXOs.
Figure 8: Boardroom shareholding versus salary.

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Acknowledgements

This article is based on theses submitted by G.S. and M.S.A. in partial fulfillment of the Cambridge University Masters in Bioscience Enterprise programme (http://www.biot.cam.ac.uk/mbe). The authors are grateful to JM Finn and Company and the Eastern Region Biotechnology Initiative for support during the preparation of these theses. The authors emphasize that specific mention of a company in this paper is not meant to imply that the company is 'better' or 'worse' than average.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graham Smith is at East Grinstead, West Sussex, UK.,

    Graham Smith

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Muhammad Safwan Akram is at the Institute of Biotechnology, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, UK.,

    Muhammad Safwan Akram

  3. Keith Redpath is at JM Finn Capital Markets Ltd., London, UK.,

    Keith Redpath

  4. Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology as well as Rufus Scientific Ltd., William Bains is at the Institute of Biotechnology, Melbourn, Royston, Herts, UK.,

    William Bains

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  1. Graham Smith
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  4. William Bains
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to William Bains.

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Competing interests

The authors declare that they personally hold shares in several of the companies mentioned in this paper. J.M. Finn provides corporate investment services and advice to several of the companies mentioned.

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Smith, G., Akram, M., Redpath, K. et al. Wasting cash—the decline of the British biotech sector. Nat Biotechnol 27, 531–537 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0609-531

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