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As BIO CEO, everywhere I go – including Tokyo and Hong Kong last month – I talk about what sets America apart as the country responsible for innovating more new medicines than the rest of the world combined. Other countries have great scientists, but no other country can match U.S. innovation policy, our world-leading biotech ecosystem or the diverse financing opportunities we provide for biotech companies at every stage of growth.

On Tuesday, BIO honored the Member of Congress who has arguably done more than any other to create this competitive advantage and stand up the U.S. biotechnology sector over the last four decades – U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

When the story of the BIO century and the new golden age of cures is written, the leadership of Utah’s senior senator will be on page one. He has driven almost every piece of groundbreaking legislation that has ensured our industry will thrive. He is the architect of the modern biotech ecosystem. If his name is not actually on the legislation, he has pushed it through Congress as the Chairman of the Senate HELP, Finance and Judiciary Committees.

Hatch – the Senate President pro tempore and third in line to the presidency – is retiring at the end of his term next January after 42 years in the upper body. In a time of extreme partisanship, it is difficult to lose a Senator who has made it his mission to have strong relationships across the aisle and ensure that pro-science legislation incorporates many voices and ideas.

Nowhere is this more evident than the groundbreaking law known as the Hatch-Waxman Act – the single most important piece of legislation ever crafted to commercialize biotech products and broaden patient access to life-saving treatments. This legislation created a true balance by allowing patients to get timely access to cheaper generic drugs, while ensuring that strong market incentives exist to continue the innovation cycle and bring new therapies to market.

Hatch-Waxman passed in 1984, but Senator Hatch wasn’t through yet. In 2010, he honored his friend – the late Senator Ted Kennedy – by passing their bill to create a similar pathway for biosimilars that includes 12 years of data exclusivity for new biologic drugs. He once again applied the tenets of Hatch-Waxman, recognizing the important differences between biologics and small-molecule drugs. In so doing, Senator Hatch championed legislation that will drive the biotech industry forward for the next four decades.

Senator Hatch has been a champion for patients. He helped enact the Orphan Drug Act, which has led to more than 500 new treatments for rare diseases. On international deals, he worked tirelessly to secure foreign commitments to protect and respect our intellectual property, and he fought to ensure that changes to U.S. patent law were mindful of the importance of life sciences IP. He also helped double the medical research budget at the National Institutes of Health, providing critical new funding for university studies that biotech companies rely upon to commercialize new medicines and reduce suffering.

This year BIO is celebrating our 25^th anniversary with the theme “Make History.” That’s exactly what Orrin Hatch has done. The United States would not be the global leader in biotech – and we wouldn’t have the treatments and cures that exist today – without him. His work in Washington D.C. has helped transform modern medicine, and that’s why he’s such a worthy recipient of the BIO Lifetime Achievement Award.

At the end of March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the government agency regulating genetically engineered plants, clarified that under its biotechnology regulations the agency “does not regulate or have any plans to regulate plants that could otherwise have been developed through traditional breeding techniques.” Essentially, this statement signals that the USDA does not, and has no intentions to, regulate gene edited plants, because using gene editing to make changes in plants is no different than selective breeding.

You could almost hear a collective sigh of relief on many farms throughout the nation, as this statement provides growers some certainty that researchers will not be forced to spend countless years and millions of dollars investing in their product through the regulatory process. The promise of gene-editing to solve some of the nation’s toughest agricultural challenges, suddenly became more promising.

In the wake of this new certainty, however, Wall Street Journal reporters Jacob Bunge and Amy Dockser Marcus dive into the question, “Will people eat it?”

And rightfully so. Even with the Federal Drug Administration and the World Health Organization determining that GMOs are safe, activists worked hard to sow fear and skepticism about the technology in the public. And it worked. Today, these same activists are looking to do the same by blurring the lines between GMOs and gene-editing. However, as Bunge and Marcus explain, these technologies are not the same:

“Those older techniques generally involve adding in genes from outside species, including bacteria, viruses and other plants. Inserting such genes enables crops to survive herbicide sprays or repel destructive bugs.

“The new gene-editing technologies enable scientists to achieve some of the same effects by altering the plants’ own DNA, without inserting new genes. With Crispr-Cas9, the most widely used system, scientists can program genetic guides to target a location along the plant’s DNA, where the Cas9 protein cuts the DNA. The cells change the DNA sequence as the cut is repaired. Scientists are using Crispr to make drought-resistant corn, reduced-gluten wheat and tomatoes with easy-to-remove stems.”

And just like the USDA alludes to in its statement, growers understand that gene-editing should instead be considered an advancement in selective breeding:

“[The agricultural industry] describes the editing technologies as an extension of plant breeding, the centuries-old practice of crossing plant strains to create improved offspring. Gene editing, the industry says, can yield the same results as crossbreeding, only faster.”

Bunge and Marcus note that the distinction between GMOs and gene-editing is “critical” for an industry that looks to develop plants that carry beneficial traits, such as disease-resistance and drought-intolerance, without breaking the bank or wasting precious time. According to the agriculture consulting firm Phillips McDougall, Ltd., it takes an average of 13 years and $136 million to develop and launch a traditional biotech crop (i.e. GMOs) through the current regulatory framework.

Therefore, USDA’s guidance on gene-editing is a step in the right direction, especially for researchers and farmers looking to harness the technology without heavy burden; however, as this Wall Street Journal piece outlines, for the public to embrace the technology they’ll need to understand that it is a continuum of selective breeding, not GMO 2.0.

The world of biotech can be a rags-to-riches story for companies that build up a drug candidate and secure FDA approval for it. And the larger the drug target group is, the more exciting it can be. Puma Biotechnology Inc. (NASDAQ: PBYI) announced last summer that it had received approval by the U.S. …

Click to view a price quote on BAC.

Last year Jerry Feitelson was accepted into BIO’s Start-up Stadium at the annual BIO International Convention. Armed with his six-minute pitch, the CEO and Co-founder of Agribody Technologies, Inc. (ATI) stood before the assembled judges and explained how his technology might one day help to save the planet. ATI was one of a select group of companies approved to participate in the program which was started in 2015 to provide early stage companies the opportunity to engage key members of the investment community, venture philanthropy groups and BIO attendees. The 40 finalists were chosen based on potential for commercial viability and the technology they were developing.

Feitelson’s ATI was an impressive applicant. Becoming fully operational in July 2016, the company has a patented “gene switch” genome editing technology with wide application for agriculture including higher yielding crops with tolerance to drought, low nutrients and disease, as well as extended shelf life of perishable produce. As Feitelson notes:

“One of the fundamental problems farmers need to confront is feeding the increasing population. Conventional breeding in many crops is flattening out; even transgenic applications are reaching their limit in many crops. Some crops have not had yield improvement for 20 or 30 years. We are focusing on yield but also the problem of lost crops after and during harvest due to disease and stress. It is only going to get worse with global climate change.”

The company claims that the gene switch technology can increase yields by up to 20% and enhance crop tolerance to stress. With food-sourcing problems caused by an ever-growing population, decreased farmland availability and climate change issues, ATI’s focus on mitigating these challenges was a big draw to the Start-up Stadium.

One of the judges listening to Feitelson’ pitch was John Lilly of Lateral Capital, LLC, an early stage investment fund which looks for compelling new companies like Agribody Technology. According to Lilly:

“Early Stage companies can be a very risky asset class-unless you can find great entrepreneurs like Jerry. And everybody in the economy knows that innovation comes from the bottom up. The Start-Up Stadium gives these new companies a chance to be heard in front of experienced investors who have capital to invest in their terrific new ideas.”

The Lateral Capital strategy is to find early stage companies with a finished product, their first customer, strong patents to protect them while they grow “and the ability to save the world…just a little bit.” Lilly saw in ATI’s technology, the potential for a world with less waste due to food spoilage and better returns for farmers. With significant partnerships already in place, ATI’s commercial viability was a reasonable expectation.

After ATI’s presentation at the Start-up Stadium, Lilly provided some immediate feedback to Feitelson. Over the next nine months, he regularly stayed in touch with ATI, making frequent introductions to other stakeholders and offering advice.

In March of this year Lateral Capital invested in ATI!

The journey from idea to breakthrough innovation is long and expensive, requiring infusions of money along the way. Yet early stage biotechs often don’t have the right access to investors and other stakeholders. That’s where BIO’s “Start-Up Stadium” comes in, connecting early stage companies with investors and state and regional affiliates.

Through this competition, BIO is looking to provide resources that boost the biotechnology industry as well as provide a clear, successful example to stakeholders that early-stage innovation is well represented at the world’s largest biotechnology event.

Each finalist presents a five to seven-minute pitch, followed up with written and oral feedback from the judges. Who knows what’s in store for these presenters? Maybe they will make lasting partnerships like ATI and Lateral Capital.

Find out more about the Start-up stadium here.

A path-breaking drug delivery system using nanotechnology, developed by a team of scientists at Regional Centre for Biotechnology (RCB) at Faridabad, would radically upgrade cancer therapy in the country and may dramatically boost the number of potent therapeutic agents. The groundbreaking …

Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Puma Biotechnology Inc (NASDAQ:PBYI) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 290,691 shares of the biopharmaceutical …

Barclays cut shares of Puma Biotechnology (NASDAQ:PBYI) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a report published on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has $90.00 price target on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. Several other analysts also recently …

A new survey’s results suggest do-it-yourselfers likely have one of five “home improvement personalities.” Which one describes you?

Two months ago, Mark Zuckerberg wrote a Facebook status that struck fear in marketers all over the world. He announced the social media giant will overhaul its algorithm once again to give users more opportunities to engage with their friends and family — Facebook’s original purpose — and less with brands, flattening their organic reach more than ever before.

The social network’s algorithm update will move tectonic plates in the Facebook marketing world. And to sustain engagement on the platform, brands will have to create Facebook groups, prioritize live video, and spend more money on Facebook ads.

Marketers will encounter a steep learning curve and high barriers to success when they first start creating Facebook groups and more live videos because these tactics are still relatively new to the digital marketing community. But they’ll see much better, faster results when they increase their Facebook advertisement budget. The platform has always offered the best social advertising tools, like the Facebook pixel.

The Facebook pixel is powerful because it shows you how successful your Facebook advertising campaigns actually are and helps you reach new, relevant audiences. And if you want to optimize your Facebook advertising strategy, we recommend taking advantage of it. Read on to learn what exactly a Facebook pixel is, its capabilities, and how to create one today.

When someone clicks through to your website from an ad and takes an action, like completing a purchase, your Facebook pixel will trigger and report the action in Facebook Ads manager. This allows you to see if they completed the desired action of the ad like buying a product or filling out a landing page — all on Facebook.

The Facebook pixel gives you deep insight into your marketing strategy because it measures your ad’s conversion rate, not just its click-through rate. This adds another layer of analytics that paint a clear picture of your buyer’s journey from ad to purchase. For instance, if one of your ads’ click through-rate is high, but the conversion rate is low, then your ad creative and landing page probably aren’t aligned.

You can also use website visitor and customer data collected from your Facebook pixel to refine your distribution strategy in several ways.

Optimization

Your Facebook pixel helps you bid specifically for conversions on Facebook. After collecting enough Facebook lead and customer data, Facebook will only show your ads to users who are most likely to convert or buy something from your website.

Remarketing

You can set up remarketing campaigns to past customers who’ve converted through a Facebook ad or users who have visited your website or certain web pages by clicking through one of your Facebook ads.

Create lookalike audiences

Once your pixel tracks a minimum of 100 conversions, you can create a lookalike audience of your website visitors and past customers on Facebook and advertise to them.

What Actions Can a Facebook Pixel Track?

When someone takes an action on your website after clicking on an ad, your Facebook pixel records it as an event. Facebook can track 9 of them:

• View content – Track key page views (article, landing page, product page)
• Search – Track searches on your website (product searches)
• Add to cart – Track when items are added to cart
• Add to wishlist – Track when items are added to wishlist
• Initiate checkout – Track when people enter your checkout flow
• Add payment info – Track when people add payment information during the checkout flow
• Make purchase – Track purchases or checkout flow completions (landing on purchase confirmation page)
• Lead – Track when someone becomes a lead (form submission, sign up for trial)
• Complete registration – Track when someone completes a registration form (complete subscription, sign up for a service)

How to Create a Facebook Pixel

On February 15, 2017, Facebook combined the conversion tracking pixel and the custom audience pixel into one Facebook pixel, which means they no longer support the old conversion tracking pixel for ad creation. If you installed a conversion tracking pixel before then, you need to install the new Facebook pixel. Here’s how you do it:

Step 1) Open Facebook Ads Manager.

Step 2) Click on the hamburger icon and click Pixels, which is under the Measure & Report tab.

Step 3) Click Create a Pixel

Step 4) Name Your Pixel

How to Install a Facebook Pixel Into Your Website

Step 1) Install the pixel’s code into your website’s header.

To install a Facebook Pixel into your website, you have three options:

 

Option 1: Use a Facebook website partner to install your pixel.

 

 

If you host your website on the platforms above, you can quickly install your pixel and check if it works by following Facebook’s instructions.

Option 2: Manually install the pixel.

You can install your pixel and check if it works by following Facebook’s instructions below.

 

Option 3: Email pixel installation instructions to one of your developers.

Installing a Facebook pixel should be a piece of cake for your software engineers.

Step 2) Track the events that matter most to your business.

To track the most important actions users take on your website, you need to add code to specific web pages. It will tell Facebook when someone has triggered an event on those pages.

To add events to individual web pages, follow the instructions below:

1. Click Pixels, which is under the Measure & Report tab.
2. Click Set Up Pixel.
3. Click Manually Install the Code Yourself.
4. Click Continue.
5. Click Install Events.
6. Toggle the event you’d like to track.
7. Choose Track Event on Page Load or Track Event on Inline Action

 

 

If landing on a certain webpage triggers an event, like someone landing on a Thank You page after filling out a lead generation form, choose the Track Event on Page Load option.

If an event can only be triggered by someone clicking a call-to-action, like the add to wishlist button, choose the Track Event on Inline action option.

8. Add event parameters, like Conversion Value or Currency, to give certain events a concrete value.

9. Place code on webpage.

For page load events, copy and paste the code right below the closing header section of the web page. This will usually be just after the opening tag.

For inline action events, copy and paste the code between script tags next to the call-to-action you’re tracking.

Step 3) Make sure your pixel actually works.

If you have Google Chrome, you can install the Pixel Helper extension to check if your pixel is accurately tracking events.