PRESS RELEASE

· New antibody program targets Tau protein, a major cause of Alzheimer’s disease

· License agreement potentially worth more than Swiss Francs 400 Million (approximately USD 418 million*)

Lausanne, Switzerland, 18 June, 2012 – AC Immune SA, today announced that it has entered into a second exclusive worldwide license agreement and research collaboration with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) for the research, development and commercialization of AC Immune’s anti-Tau antibodies for the potential treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Under the terms of the agreement, AC Immune will receive an undisclosed upfront payment and is eligible to receive research, development and commercialization milestone payments totaling more than Swiss Francs 400 million (approximately USD 418 million*) for Alzheimer´s disease and other indications. Additionally, AC Immune is eligible to receive royalties on net sales of products resulting from the collaboration. Under the multi-year joint research collaboration, AC Immune will work in partnership with Genentech to identify and formulate several pre-clinical candidates. Genentech will have global responsibility for pre-clinical and clinical development, manufacturing and commercialization of antibodies resulting from the collaboration.

Prof. Andrea Pfeifer, CEO of AC Immune said: “We are delighted to continue our excellent relationship with Genentech through this second landmark deal to fight Alzheimer’s disease. This underlines Genentech’s trust in AC Immune’s proprietary technology platform and we are confident in our joint abilities to develop not only
first-in-class but also best-in-class medication for one of the biggest healthcare problems of this century.”

“This second licensing deal gives us financial security to continue AC Immune’s
world-leading efforts to develop disease modifying therapies and diagnostics. We are now recognized as having one of the broadest and most advanced Alzheimer’s pipelines in the industry”, remarked Martin Velasco, Chairman of The Board of AC Immune .

Commenting on the deal, James Sabry, Genentech’s Vice President of Partnering , said: “Genentech is committed to bringing innovative treatments to patients suffering from devastating neurodegenerative diseases, and is developing a number of approaches to tackle Alzheimer’s disease. The addition of this anti-Tau program to our CNS pipeline complements other approaches we are investigating, including crenezumab which we in-licensed from AC Immune in 2006.”

About the anti-Tau Program

The Tau protein forms twisted fibers inside brain cells and build tangles that are considered by many in the scientific community as the second major cause of Alzheimer’s disease besides Abeta-plaques. The anti-Tau antibodies were discovered and humanized by AC Immune through its proprietary SupraAntigen TM technology.

“The anti-tau-antibodies have proven highly specific to misfolded Tau in relevant animal models for Alzheimer’s disease and are therefore well suited to be developed as a disease-modifying drug. This has significant potential as there are at present no known cures for Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. Andreas Muhs, Chief Scientific Officer
of AC Immune .

About Crenezumab

An anti-Abeta antibody, crenezumab was discovered and humanized by AC Immune. It is designed to bind to amyloid beta (Abeta), the main constituent of amyloid plaque in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Abeta is considered to be a major cause in the development of the disease. Genentech is currently evaluating crenezumab in a Phase II clinical study in Alzheimer’s patients with mild to moderate symptoms. At the time the deal with Genentech was announced in December 2006, it was stated to have a potential total value of more than USD 300 million in clinical and regulatory milestone payments to AC Immune, excluding royalties.

In May 2012, crenezumab was selected to be tested in the world’s first-ever prevention trial in healthy individuals who are genetically destined to develop Alzheimer’s disease. This landmark study to investigate whether an anti-amyloid treatment can stave off the disease is being run by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute (BAI), the University of Antioquia in Colombia and Genentech.

About Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer´s is the most common form of dementia. It is degenerative, irreversible and terminal. The memory and thinki ng of the patients is progressively destroyed. Besides the personal aspect there is a huge social and economic impact. Alzheimer´s disease is recognized as a significant health crisis of the 21st century with currently more than
36 million patients worldwide. This number is expected to double in the next 20 years and to triple to more than 116 million by 2050. In 2010 global worldwide costs were estimated to be USD 604 billion and were exceeding 1% of the global domestic product (Reference: World Alzheimer Report 2011, Alzheimer’s Disease International).

Scientists don’t yet fully understand what causes Alzheimer’s disease, but it has become increasingly clear that it develops because of a complex series of events that take place in the brain over a long period of time. Two proteins – Tau and Abeta – are perceived as the major causes of neurodegeneration: tangles and other abnormal forms of Tau protein accumulate inside the brain cells, while plaques and oligomers formed by Abeta occur outside the brain cells of people with Alzheimer’s disease.

About AC Immune SA
AC Immune SA is a Swiss-based biopharmaceutical company and a leader in Alzheimer´s disease drug development. AC Immune develops innovative therapeutics with “best in class” potential against Alzheimer´s disease and other conformational diseases along three axes: vaccines, antibodies and small molecules. The anti-Abeta antibody (crenezumab) for passive immunization is partnered with Genentech and is in Phase II development. The company continues to develop in house the small molecule ACI-91 and the vaccine ACI-24 in Phase II and Phase I/IIa clinical development respectively. These three clinical programs are focused on Alzheimer’s disease, and are backed by a rich portfolio of preclinical compounds. The therapeutic molecules are also leveraged for Alzheimer´s disease diagnostic and other central nervous system and non-CNS diseases, such as Glaucoma. Since its foundation in 2003, AC Immune has raised CHF 64 million from private investors.

-Anita M. Harris
Disclosure: I will be working with AC Immune at the Biotechnology Industry Organization today in Boston.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning strategic public relations,  marketing communications and thought leadership firm in Cambridge, MA.

SHANAHAN NAMED VP OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

—One of the newest international companies to expand into Cambridge is Ariana (R)  Pharma–a 2003 spin-out of the Pasteur Institute in Paris.  Its  subsidiary, Ariana Data Intelligence, Inc., located in the Cambridge Innovation Center at 1 Broadway,  will provide novel non-statistical clinical data analysis technology to pharma and the FDA,  Ariana announced today.

The technology,  “Knowledge Extraction and Management Technology (KEM)” is aimed at reducing cost, bias, and risk in clinical trials.

“The US pharma and biotech markets tend  to be early technology adopters and are searching for better data analytics tools to advance personalized medicine using all the new biomarker, genomic, proteomic and metabolomic data now being generated,” said  Dr. Mohammad Afshar, Ariana’s President and CEO.

KEM   “is the only FDA-tested technology that  can simultaneously analyze all these variables and pull out patient responder sub-groups, optimize biomarker signatures and remove bias from clinical trials,” Afshar said.

A “unique” association rules-based (non-statistical) analytical technology, KEM  finds patient responder sub-populations and biomarker signatures that statistical methods are unable to detect, according to Afshar.  KEM thus optimizes clinical trial inclusion/exclusion criteria, thereby lowering the number of patients needed to reach clinical endpoints and saving sponsors both time and cash, and reducing clinical drug development risk.

In conjunction with the opening, Ariana has appointed James M. Shanahan as Vice President  of Business Development.  Shanahan was previously a co-founder and is currently a  board member of SynDevRx, Inc., an oncology-focused biotech company. He was also a co-founder and VP Corporate Development of JAM Technologies, Inc.

Ariana offers something “special and desperately needed “by the pharmaceutical industry, Shanahan said.   “Companies spend tens of millions generating data.  Now, it’s all about making sense of that data.  KEM identifies useful, complex biological relationships that statistics routinely miss.”

More information is available at  http://www.arianapharma.com/  .

–Anita M. Harris

Alvin Ailey’s performance on Friday was spectacular: riveting, creative, beautiful and…fun!

                 The  program, one of several in new director Robert Battle’s first directorial season,  opened with Arden Court,

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Antonio Douthit and Alicia Graf Mack in Paul Taylor's Arden Court. Photo by Paul Kolnik

Photo by Paul Kolnik

set to the baroque music of Richard Boyce and the most “classically” patterned of the evening’s  pieces.

Described  as “an unfolding petal” by Dance Magazine and as  “lush”  and lauded by the New York Times for “the irresistible pleasure of its dancing,”  it  is replete with big movements,  high jumps, and  elegant formations.  This is the first season the Alvin Ailey company, founded in 1958,  has performed a work by Paul Taylor.

Video: at http://www.alvinailey.org/arden-court

The second piece,  Minus 16, by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin has been widely performed but it was a first for me–and  one of the most unusual dance compositions I’ve ever seen.

It began during what seemed to be an intermission…with  a dancer (Samuel Lee Roberts),  wearing a poorly fitting black suit, seeming to be  lackadaisically fooling around on stage..shuffle step, tap,  to rumba and cha cha music… as if there were no audience. Gradually, more men in hats, black pants and  T-shirts joined him.

In another part of Minus 16,  members of the company dressed in black suits white t shirts sat on folding chairs in a semi-circle– swooping forward and leaning back,  one after the other, in a clockwise wave– to a souped-up version of the passover song Echad Mi Yodea (one who knows). At the end of every repetition, and there were many,   the dancer in the chair farthest right  fell to the floor, taking longer and longer to return to his chair as the “wave” began again.    Part way through, the dancers removed their jackets, and, at the end,  they piled  most of their clothes, including their shoes, at the center of the stage.

In the final  piece of Minus 16,  the dancers walked somberly and silently off the stage and through the performance hall–  returning to the stage,   still silent, escorting  people from  the audience who were then incorporated into the performance.

At first, I thought the audience members on stage were plants: some were great dancers; some were hams; some were both–and many of the women selected wore red tops or scarves  and black skirts or slacks. But  not all were so dressed and not all seemed comfortable being led by their professional partners,  on stage.

The piece ended with all but one of the performers lying down on stage. The one left standing,  a slightly overweight middle-aged blonde  woman,  bowed gracefully.  The lights dimmed, and  a spotlight shone on  her as she walked across the stage,  down the steps  and through the hall to her seat.  The audience–including me–loved it.

I’ve since read in Dance Magazine that  if you want to be chosen to go on stage,  you should wear bright colors; if not, bring a pen and pretend to be a critic by taking notes.  And the Alvin Ailey Web site quotes Battle as saying that  Minus 16  “offers surprising new experiences for the company and our audience,”   and that it will be “both a great joy and a challenge for the dancers to improvise, break the fourth wall and invite the audience in.” So–the audience participation was for real.

The closing piece, Alvin Ailey’s 1960 Revelations, set to  familiar “traditional” songs such as “Wade in the Water,”  “Sinner Man,” and “Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham,”

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Briana Reed and Yannick Lebrun in Alvin Ailey's Revelations. Photo by Gert Krautbauer

brought an encompassing sense of history to the entire performance.   I had seen Revelations as a teenager…and now, as an adult, the variety of periods, costumes it incorporated  got me thinking about the importance of art in integrating  the past and present–and escorting us into the  future.

–Anita M. Harris

Anita M. Harris is a writer and consultant based in Cambridge, MA. New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, a   PR and marketing communications firm.

For entrepreneurs seeking venture capital funding, there’s good news—and there’s bad news. The good news is that  it’s easier now than at any time in the last ten years to get relatively small amounts of seed money. The bad news is that it’s harder to obtain “A Round” or additional series funding after that.

That was the consensus of  three Boston area venture capitalists who spoke at the Cambridge Innovation Center on  Wednesday, May 2.  Moderator Ben Hron of  law firm McCarter -English, which sponsored the event, asked the VCs  how the 2008 economic downturn  has impacted the VC industry;  where things stand now,  and what they foresee for the future.

Impact of the recession
A changing industry
Jo Tango, founder and partner of Kepha Partners, which invests in early stage companies, said that for many VC firms, this is a period of innovation. “We call it VC 2.0,”  he quipped to the audience of  entrepreneurs.  The VC industry, which started in about 1980, used to be dominated by approximately 20 major firms; today, there are more smaller, more specialized VC firms, he said.

David Beisel, co-founder and partner of  NextView Ventures, a dedicated seed-stage venture capital firm focused on Internet startups, said that the downturn has “facilitated a  maturation process,” which he likened to what happened in the beer industry in the 1990s.

That is, “You had to be either one of the biggest, like Anheuser-Busch—or a microbrewery.” Mid-size companies like Genesee fell by the wayside.

Likewise,  today,  he said, “VC firms are no longer trying to be all things to all entrepreneurs; they’re taking a dedicated approach.  Recently, four or five firms raised more than $1B but mid-sized firms are struggling.”

CA Webb, Executive Director of the New England Venture Capital Association, said that considering this a time of “introspection and innovation” is “optimistic…The reality is that the industry is taking a hard look at itself. Some say that the ‘sky is falling,’ because there’s less money being invested; this means that some firms will shut down. Those that succeed will need to articulate clearly just what they are willing to offer and to whom.”

Tango pointed out that “Innovation [in the VC industry] creates a challenge for entrepreneurs because VC firms are “all over the map,” and “it’s difficult to know which one is right for [a particular startup]. It’s easier now to get seed money–but terms are often more difficult to distinguish.”

Current trends
In asking the panelists for their views on the current venture funding situation, Hron shared Q1 2012 statistics showing  a large number of deals but a drop in total funding compared with previous quarters– in indicating fewer “megadeals.”  “Should entrepreneurs should be optimistic because of the number of deals or pessimistic about the size of the deals?” he asked.

Fewer large deals
Tango responded that one reason for the decline in large deals has to do with the number of deals VCs have previously closed.  In the current economic climate, he explained, it’s difficult raise a stream of money. In a recent study of five VC Web sites, his firm found that many VCs are already sitting on the boards of 10-17 companies in which they have invested. “If you’re fundraising…if you’re already on 15 boards, you need to spend your time fund raising,” not sitting on additional boards.

Smaller investments
Beisel described what he called a longer term trend:  in some sectors, especially digital media, companies don’t need to raise as much money for initial funding as in other sectors–so at earlier stages, the venture community is reacting by not writing $5M checks but rather $1M or .5 M.

In Webb’s view, “seeding is now like the old Series A funding: there is a lot of seed money to go around but Series A is now looking like the old series C “(IE–difficult to come by).

Follow-on funding can be problematic.
Tango agreed –describing a firm that backed 20 companies with seed money but told him it will provide only 2 % of those with Series A funding.  He added that the situation is even more complicated because even at the “seed stage,”different VCs require different terms.

In fact, he recommended, “Ninety per cent of startups should be bootstrapped (funded by self, friends and family) because other investors expect that they will get their money out within a few years. “With VC funding, you’re becoming a fiduciary…taking on ‘credit card debt’ that you will need to pay back.”

In Beisel’s view, before taking any money from VCs, an entrepreneur needs to know how outsiders view the firm, the reputation of the VC firm, which partner will be best for the company, and whether the firm usually adds to series funding or “will you be one of the 98% that get dropped?”

Health care vs. other  investment
Citing a decline in financing for health care ventures in Massachusetts compared with increased financing for Internet and mobile technology, Hron asked if investors are seeking short-term gains as instead of  taking the long view required for biotechnology and pharma payback.

Webb responded that one reason for the slowdown in health care company funding is that the US Food and Drug Administration is taking longer to approve products so the horizons for investors are longer. As a result, investors are shifting toward healthcare technology, “big data” and products that will bring a quicker return.

In Beisel’s view, “Over the last ten years the returns for health care investment have not been that great; health care is now even more challenging. But VCs won’t shift to other spaces; the money just won’t get raised.”

Long -term trends
According to Hron, the data suggest a rise in VC investing in Washington State, Texas, and Illinois. “Are we seeing the rise of a national VC community or is this a blip?” he asked. “And will VC investors look at companies nationwide?”

Tango and Beisel agreed that large investors are looking at companies nationally and internationally–especially in the Internet space.

They also agreed that it’s unlikely that VCs will spring up in Kansas or in “third-tier American cities,” as Beisel; put it.  In Tango’s view, “they will still be centered in Boston, NY and California.”  Beisel pointed out that that VC firms are on the rise in nations like Argentina and Eastern Europe.  According to Webb, “Capital clusters around academic institutions: You won’t see much density elsewhere.”

Crowd sourcing
Regarding the  recent passage of legislation allowing corporate fundraising through crowd sourcing, panelists expressed concerns about possibilities for fraud and entry of organized crime; and also  that unsophisticated investors might not know that seasoned professionals expect to lose money on most  investments—in hopes that a few will have big payoffs.

Asked by Hron if VCs will look askance at companies raising initial funding through crowd sourcing, Beisel said  that it’s fine to get seed money wherever you can but a “real company” will need institutional investors in order to grow large.

In Tango’s view, “Your source of funding depends on what you want to accomplish: Do you just want to get money…or are you looking for series of VC rounds, advice and support?”

PANELIST BIOs

David Beisel – David is Co-Founder and Partner of NextView Ventures, a dedicated seed-stage venture capital firm focused on investments in internet startups.  Previously he was an investor at both Venrock and Masthead Venture Partners, where he served on the boards of BlogHer and Gazelle.  Prior to joining Masthead, he co-founded Sombasa Media, an e-mail marketing company which was successfully acquired by About.com and subsequently became a division of Primedia (NYSE: PRM), where he served as Vice President of Marketing.  He is also the founder of the Web Innovators Group, a quarterly entrepreneur-focused event which attracts nearly a thousand attendees.  David blogs atwww.GenuineVC.com.

Jo Tango – Jo is Founder and Partner of Kepha Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm.   Previously, Jo spent was a General Partner at Highland Capital Partners, where he worked for nearly nine year, and before that he spent five years with Bain & Company.  Jo has invested in the e-commerce, search engine, Internet ad network, wireless, supply chain software, storage, database, security, on-line payments and data center virtualization spaces.  He has been a founding or first institutional investor in Azuki Systems, Bit9, ExaGrid, StreamBase Systems, Vertica Systems (acquired by Hewlett-Packard), Virtual Iron (acquired by Oracle) and VoltDB, getting involved nearly always at the company inception phase. Other investments include Ask Jeeves (Nasdaq: ASKJ), Digital Market (acquired by Agile Software), and NextCard (Nasdaq: NXCD).

C.A. Webb – C.A. became the Executive Director of the New England Venture Capital Association in January 2012.  Members of the NEVCA include more than 700 venture capital professionals from over 100 firms that collectively manage more than $50 billion in capital.  C.A. has spent her career in entrepreneurial roles with mission driven, early stage and high growth organizations. Her work has focused on breakthrough business models in a diverse array of industries including retail and packaged goods (Whole Foods Market), consumer internet technology (Care.com), sustainability (Preserve Products), historic preservation (Trinity Boston Foundation), public education (Boston Collegiate Charter School), and publishing (Fast Company magazine

Earlier this week,  I had the privilege of attending the tenth annual “BIO-IT World Conference and Expo,” at which some 2500  information technology professionals participated in a 12-track program featuring more than 200 presentations on scientific and technologic developments.

From  keynote speakers Jill Mesirov, PhD, and Martin Leach, PhD,  respectively the Associate Director and Chief Information Officer  of the Harvard-MIT Broad Institute,  I learned that exponential increases  in computing power promise to bring personalized medicine –allowing highly individualized diagnosis and treatment –to doctors offices within ten years. I also learned how hard it is to keep track of the petabytes  ( a PBs is a unit of information equal to one quadrillion  bytes, or 1024 terabytes )  used to keep it all going.

Mesirov announced the upcoming launch of “Genome Space“–a new Web-based technology to help scientists make sense of and collaborate in using such data.

And in a talk entitled “BIG,”  Leach described the difficulty of defining “big data,” because the amount of available information is growing so rapidly.   He described an event held recently at the Broad to celebrate the Institute’s ability to store and analyze ten pedabytes of data –his glee soon tempered by  his recollection that in 1993, NIH’s Institute of Medicine was thrilled with its ability store 16 gigabytes–which anyone can now do on a cell phone.

Today,  Leach said, we are  seeing “increasing big data with a decreasing footprint.” [that is, smaller systems needed for gathering and retrieval].

Mentioning that he has an autistic son and would like to be able to figure out what causes the disorder, Leach  asked, “Why is there no Google search for data, no way to access thousands of data repositories?

“We need a new application ecosystem and a breed of data scientist who knows how and where to push this data, ” he said.  He predicted that there will soon be 50 thousand jobs in the  “big data” arena.

In the exhibit hall,  I was pleased to see that  see that Wingu, headquartered in the Cambridge Innovation Center, where I work, had been nominated for a best of show award for its pharmaceutical, contract research and academic collaboration software.

The winners, announced last night, were Recentris, Opscode, Clear Trial, and Cambridge Semantics. [More info at http://www.bio-itworld.com/2012/04/26/2012-best-of-show-winners.html]. Best Practice Grand Prizes went to big Pharma: Merck, Pfizer, and Merck KGaA (Germany)  went to and two genomics organizations, BGI Shenzhen and the University of Utah/Omicia. http://www.bio-itworld.com/2012/04/25/bio-it-world-announces-winners-2012-best-practices-awards.html.

BIO-IT World is sponsored by  Insight Pharma Reports, Samsung, and the Portland Group. It runs through April 27, 2012.

—Anita M. Harris

With the job market looking up for 2012 grads–especially in health care and communications fields,  according to   the National Association of Colleges and Employers  and  Reuters– I was very pleased to join Stephen Smith of the Boston Globe and Lara Salahi  of ABC News in speaking to Emerson College students about careers in health communications.

Our panel, on April 5 was one in a series comprising Emerson’s “Communications Week.”  It was moderated by Bridgette Collado, who teaches at Emerson.

Stephen Smith,  now the Globe’s City Editor,   traced  his career as a health reporter from his early days  at the Miami Herald through his many years at the Globe--describing a drive to tell the stories of individuals  in order to bring their plight to public attention.  He pointed out that while in Massachusetts, most people have access to health care,  in other parts of the US, this is not the case.  He also described his coverage of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, focusing on the story of Reginette Cineliene  , a 14-year old  girl who lost her father, a sister, her home and a leg, spent a year living in a tent encampment, was often hungry, yet still managed to study with the goal of one day becoming a doctor.  Smith said he found Reginette  inspirational–and that he was pleased that his reporting had led readers to  provide Reginette’s remaining family with money to rent a home and pay for an artificial limb.

Lara Salahi, an ABC News  health producer, emphasized  the importance of  telling the stories of “real” people-as opposed to focusing on reports by experts. She used three brief slide/video shows to illustrate the hope and difficulties autism brings to families. One featured a young man who had wanted to be a doctor but, instead, went into radiation diagnostics; a second a  husband and wife who are raising three autistic daughters;  and the third  parents of an autistic son who died young of a seizure disorder.

Anita Harris
I described my career as somewhat unusual–mainly driven by the vagaries of the economy. I became a journalist by starting  a newspaper with college friends; worked in print, radio and television in New York City,  taught college, and went into public affairs when my college downsized.  I emphasized that with economic and technologic changes, versatility is key; it’s important to have  skills in all media, enjoy change, and if you’re going to do work independently you have to like to  market yourself.

I also outlined the broad changes I’ve  noticed.  When I started out in,  print and broadcast journalism operated in separate silos and major  news organizations had tremendous power to control and shape the information reaching the public.  Today, increasingly, we are experiencing a convergence of media, in which news organizations are employing multiple media to reach their readers–and no longer monopolize the flow of information.  The results are both positive and negative.

Convergence of media
For example, the  Globe,  previously print only, now has online version that includes video reports.  Reporters for public radio are asked to blog and carry cameras; many reporters and editors are using social media–all of which have the potential to inform the public  in a variety of ways.  However, with staff cutbacks, many journalists are working harder now than in the past;   I’m concerned that  covering stories in multiple  media could diminish the number and depth of stories on which they report.

Dissipation of control
I think  it’s great that  anyone with access to a computer can provide information to the world.  But without vetting by bona fide, trained journalists,   this democratization makes it difficult to know where information is coming from, how good it is, and, to play on words, where the truth lies– presenting special difficulties for health communicators.

—-Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is a writer and content strategist in Cambridge, MA.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group of Cambridge, MA.

Tim Rowe, CEO of the Cambridge Innovation Center in Kendall Square, gave a great talk at HarrisCom Group’s recent Pitching for Business Workshop on Feb. 23.  Among his main points: “Elevator pitching is like dating:” the goal is to find out if it’s worth spending more time with the person you’re speaking to. Tim is also a venture capitalist and president of the Kendall Square Association in Cambridge, MA.

Here are links to the video and to the blog I wrote on the HarrisCom Web site.

Link to video
Link to blog  

–Anita M. Harris
Anita M. Harris is president of the Harris Communications Group of Cambridge, MA, an award-winining public relations 3.0 firm specializing in strategic integrated marketing communications and thought leadership  for clients in health, science, energy, technology and education, worldwide. 

Interesting, unusual mix of romance, politics, environmentalism, international affairs, humor, seriousness; has moments that are really fun. The characters (and actors) are attractive, individualized, not cliched, even somewhat complex. The film serves an important purpose in humanizing an Arab sheik for an American audience–and brings up interesting issues about wealth, power, economic development, tradition and resistance to change.

I appreciated Salmon Fishing’s  poking fun at the British government–with humor that we don’t find, these days, in or about American politics. Although it was farfetched, I enjoyed it. My companions, both journalists, found it “too cute.”  I wondered when the movie was conceived and how much sense it makes now, given the current situation in the Middle East.
–Anita M. Harris

Anita Harris, a former journalist, is president of the Harris Communications Group–a Cambridge, MA, PR firm specializing in integrated marketing communications and thought leadership for clients in health, science, technology, energy and education, worldwide.