Peter Young, a 35-year  biopharmaceutical industry veteran has seen his share of missteps by academics aspiring to become entrepreneurs and has some advice on partnering with VCs.

Peter Young, a 35-year pharma industry veteran and executive-in-residence with AM Pappas & Associates, shares exclusive insights (that aren’t part of his presentation at BIO International) on how to prepare for a QA grant-funding audit — all from a lesson learned the hard way.

When Peter Young began planning his session proposal for this year’s BIO International Conference, he wanted to create a session worthy of your time. His session may be fascinating, but the young, a 35-year veteran of the biopharmaceutical industry, took some time to provide additional industry insights — ones you are not likely to gather by only attending his session.

The darkest days of Jazz Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: JAZZ) came in April 2009. “Our stock price was 53 cents a share,” recalls the company’s cofounder, chairman, and CEO, Bruce Cozadd. Having negative equity, $120 million in long-term debt, around $15 million in cash, and being unable to raise capital, Jazz was in serious trouble.

If you have worked at your company for longer than six months, then you can probably describe your organization’s culture in one word, which hopefully doesn’t involve an expletive.

While I applaud the leadership of J&J for coming up with what seems to be a fair, equitable, and ethical solution to the phenomenon of desperate patients using social media to campaign for early access to medication, to me it feels more like a version of compassionate-use hot potato to tackle a problem nobody really wants to be associated with.

A quote from Albert Einstein saying, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” When you consider that HBA was founded over 35 years ago, I wonder if its present mission of advancing the impact of women in healthcare worldwide is being supported by a name that is not inclusive of all its present day stakeholders.

Last month, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) held its 2015 annual meeting in Washington, D.C. In years previous, the event served as a two-day public conference scheduled around PhRMA’s annual board of directors meetings and encompassed panels and presentations.

Removing his Stetson, Tony Brazzale steps to the podium. The president and CEO begins his 15-minute PowerPoint pitch for why you should consider investing in Gordian Biotechnologies, his second biotech start-up. It’s the kind of presentation that’s being given formally and informally throughout San Francisco during the week of Jan. 12, 2015, as the city hosts both the 33rd Annual J.P. Morgan (JPM) Healthcare Conference and the 2015 Annual Biotech Showcase.