By Randall Osborne

SEATTLE ¿ Some things never change.

As the information age and biotechnology converge, even the most silicon-savvy smaller firms remain more focused on a different, more immediately vital ¿connection¿ ¿ that is, the often lifesaving marriage between biotechnology companies and big pharmaceutical players, through financial partnerships that can push developing products to market.

Robert Becker, director of business development at Pasteur Merieux Connaught, the giant French vaccine maker with U.S. headquarters in Swiftwater, Pa., said biotechnology firms¿ basic requirement hardly has shifted with the fast-moving times.

¿Their first need is cash,¿ he said.

Becker spoke in a session called ¿bionegotiations.com: The Next Wave in Biotech Negotiations¿ during the Biotechnology Industry Organization¿s meeting and exhibition here.

Although the session title was high-tech, Becker¿s talk was more about old-fashioned partnerships and how, once established, they work to the benefit of financially strapped biotechnology companies ¿ or fail to work.

His advice applied both to biotechnology and pharmaceutical parties, and the key word was ¿synergy.¿ Under the traditional, licensing model for collaborations, pharmaceutical firms tend to lose it, Becker said. Although licensing provides a satisfying means of controlling intellectual property and research, the ¿knowledge is more static; in other words, you¿re not really creating an exchange of information,¿ he added.

Understandably more popular than licensing is a fully involved partnership, which ensures a ¿transparent¿ exchange of know-how and discoveries and a healthy dependency, Becker said.

¿Even if you have no infrastructure, you can utilize their infrastructure and their expertise,¿ he said. ¿With your input, you can almost immediately be moving rapidly toward development of a product.¿

Sharing of financial risk keeps the relationship sharp, he added.

¿It tends to bring good focus on what are the key issues,¿ Becker said, and ensures both parties are ¿fully motivated.¿

Among the challenges for biotechnology/pharmaceutical partnerships, he said, is the failure to keep lines of communication open ¿ especially when research may not be proceeding as smoothly as hoped.

¿The partnership over time, over a long-term relationship, needs to remain open and constructive and have frequent communication, even in times when things aren¿t going well,¿ Becker said.

In happy times, ¿everyone wants to talk about it, everyone¿s happy,¿ he said. ¿When the results aren¿t coming back as one might expect, though, things often tend to shut down. This is one of the major aspects you need to battle.¿

The planning stage is where such problems can be headed off, Becker said.

¿Make sure you really understand what the strengths and weaknesses are in both parties, so you¿re not depending on an area of your partner that is a weakness,¿ he said. ¿Both companies need to be willing to forfeit some level of control. If they don¿t, you can¿t have synergy.¿

Pharmaceutical companies enjoy an advantage because of size, but that only means the biotechnology firms must choose carefully, and work harder to keep good things going.

¿Obviously, this [biotechnology] project is part of a portfolio of projects, and over the long haul ¿ this program is probably going to take five to seven years, in some cases ¿ you¿re going to be looking at some companies whose priorities may be shifting,¿ Becker said. ¿The issue is how to keep the big pharma company focused on issues that are critical to you, if you¿re a small biotech company.¿

Conflicts are inevitable, Becker said.

¿In all cases, there are going to be disputes. Even making simple decisions as to how the program is going to move forward. One needs to establish what is going to be the means of resolving those disputes.¿

The BIO ¿99 meeting continues through Thursday.