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Life Sciences
Life Sciences
Possibility meets practicality and financial know-how.
Overview
Friedman LLP's Life Sciences Service Group works with pharmaceutical, specialty pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device companies, and other related businesses, at every stage of their lifecycles.
Selecting the right service provider is an extremely important decision. Rest assured, we understand the high price paid to be a successful life science company: costly R&D cycles, complex clinical trials, lengthy government agency reviews, product launch complexities, challenging financing and capital raises as well as complex collaborative agreements just to name a few. That's why it is crucial to partner with a firm that enables private and public life sciences companies and their bio-entrepreneurs to be innovative and work creatively, while providing complete comfort that the accounting, reporting and tax compliance associated with innovative capital, financing, licensing and other collaborative arrangements are properly managed and assessed.
Just as your company benefits and values its intellectual property and intangibles, you will benefit from Friedman's intangibles - personal attention, prompt and accurate responses to questions, frequent and ongoing communication, quick resolution to issues and collaborative and proactive interaction with management - the simple yet differentiating attributes among firms.
Proud Member of:
Service Menu
- Audit and Accounting Services
- Audit and assurance services (public and private companies)
- Industry-specific accounting solutions (e.g., revenue recognition associated with collaboration agreements, etc.)
- SEC filing support
- Transactional support for IPOs, reverse mergers, APOs and PIPES
- Due diligence and other support
- Licensing and royalty audits
- Benefit plan audits
- Accounting support and assistance
- Tax Services
- R&D and other tax credits and incentives
- Tax provision assistance
- International tax planning
- Federal, state and local tax planning
- Intercompany pricing
- Consulting
- Forecast and budget assistance
- Internal audit outsourcing and co-sourcing
- Corporate governance
- Pharmaceutical guideline control verification
- SOX 404 support and consulting
- Benefit plan consulting
Client Stories
- CASE STUDY: Making Sense of Multiple Deliverables and Revenue Recognition
Complexities in Collaboration Agreements
- The Challenge
Life Sciences and other technology-driven companies often enter into collaboration agreements to develop and bring pharmaceuticals, medical devices or other products to market which involve multiple deliverables. Generally, a license is granted to a customer (the Licensee) who provides that customer with the rights to use the intellectual property of the issuer (the Licensor).
Our client, the Licensor, was in the process of entering into an agreement which encompassed research and development services, manufacturing services as well as marketing/sales for the licensed technology. The cash consideration included upfront fees, milestone payments for R&D, payments for manufacturing services and future royalties.
The client was concerned about the revenue recognition complexities which were further compounded by the recent accounting guidance changes. - The Solution
After reviewing the draft agreement, we helped our client identify the deliverables of this multiple-element arrangement and determine whether the deliverables were separate units of accounting. - Outcome
This upfront review and assessment provided for a better allocation of the various considerations to those separate units of accounting which assisted the client with finalizing its financial statements as well as their audit preparation. Finally, as an added value, we noted that the draft agreement provided for a markup on “Cost of Goods” without cost of goods being adequately defined in the agreement. This early agreement review and joint effort also mitigated the potential for future discrepancies and disputes on this element of the contract.
- The Challenge
- TESTIMONIAL: S. Colin Neill, President & CFO – Pharmos Corporation
- As a smaller publicly traded biotechnology company, preservation of cash was critical, especially during the economic crisis when external financing was almost nonexistence. The management and the board were used to dealing with big four national firms. In reality, we did not need a national firm, and I agreed to meet with Friedman LLP.
After discussing our needs, Friedman came back to me with a competitive fee range and plan that was very attractive and much better than the big four national firm we were with. I suggested that Friedman come back the next day and review the general ledger to ensure that they were comfortable with the quote - they were. Next step was to ensure that this would not be a first year buy in, and I was assured it was not. Lastly, I had to sell the well-known and experienced Board and Audit Committee. The references all checked out and Friedman was engaged as our auditor.
Friedman’s practical working experience and extremely professional, knowledgeable and helpful staff were appropriate for the size and development stage of Pharmos Corporation. Through the years, from the management team to the Board members, we quickly learned that the level of service and expertise didn’t deteriorate and in fact access to key individuals and the overall efficiency of our filing process improved. Our Friedman engagement team treated us like their “A” client at all times and really invested time and effort to learn about our company and its specific needs.
I would recommend Friedman to any life science company, as they will surely benefit from their expertise and quality client service.
- As a smaller publicly traded biotechnology company, preservation of cash was critical, especially during the economic crisis when external financing was almost nonexistence. The management and the board were used to dealing with big four national firms. In reality, we did not need a national firm, and I agreed to meet with Friedman LLP.
Insights & Events
- May 3, 2018 2018 BioNJ Partnering Conference | May 3
Friedman LLP is proud to sponsor and exhibit at the BioNJ Partnering conference on May 3! In partnership with J.P....
Read more - September 6, 2017 What BioPharma Investors Need to Know about Financial Disclosure
Stock News Now featured an exclusive article from Robert E. Fiorentino, CPA, Partner showcasing must-know financial disclosure insights for BioPharma Investors. For...
Read more - May 23, 2017 2017 BioPartnering Conference | May 23
Friedman LLP is proud to sponsor and exhibit at the BioPartnering conference on May 23. In partnership with J.P. Morgan,...
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