Next Phase Newsletter

By Caitlin Dolegowski, Marketing Manager, LSN

Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Boston June presented by Life Science Nation (LSN) took place in-person at the Westin Copley Plaza on June 5, followed by two-days of virtual partnering on June 6-7. This hybrid event was another RESI success! With over 800 attendees representing over 30 countries across 5 continents, RESI was truly a global event. Almost 50% of participants were active life science investors and the other 50% were made up of mostly early-stage startups, as well as tech hubs and service providers.

The main event at RESI is always partnering, and RESI Boston June hosted 1500+ partnering meetings. Our onsite partnering tables were full during the in-person event and partnering continued virtually for the next two days. The feedback from our attendees is clear, that hybrid is the new way post pandemic, and LSN is committed to offering the hybrid format to expand the partnering opportunities for the RESI community.

Partnering is supplemented at our in-person conference with Investor Panels, the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge and Sponsor Workshops. This conference featured seven investor panels curated in an effort to focus on the dynamic life science ecosystem. Panel topics included the tried-and-true RESI staples, such as Corporate Venture Capital, Big Pharma and Medtech Strategics and in addition presented some focused panels like Women’s Health and Cell & Gene Therapy. LSN is always updating and sourcing active life science investors and the dedication to this work makes for a diverse lineup of seasoned RESI-regular investors as well as new investors.

The Innovator’s Pitch Challenge (IPC) consisted of 56 companies! Pitching companies showcased their technology posters in the exhibit hall and each participating company pitched to a panel of industry experts and active investors by sector. RESI Boston June had 14 sessions in total and Life Science Nation is excited for this increasing turnout in the IPC and the opportunity for the early-stage companies to network and present with relevant investors. Three companies collected the most “RESI cash” a currency exclusive to RESI distributed to attendees to “invest” in the innovation compelling to them. Congratulations to Thrive Bioscience on their first-place finish, Clinials in second and Untech finishing Third.

A thank you to our sponsors for their support of the RESI conference and hosting workshops geared to our RESI community. RESI sponsors highlighted their services and educated attendees during workshops. Our sponsors provided insight into Negotiating Term Sheets, Company Valuation for Fundraising, Maximizing Pre-clinical Development Success for VC-Backed Startups Through CRO Partnerships and IP Considerations for Start-Ups.

LSN had two exciting announcements for the RESI community that made their debut at RESI Boston June. We are happy to announce the debut of a free, daily, newsletter, LifeSci StartUp, will contain the most up-to-date news, information, tools, and more for and about U.S.-based life sciences startups, brought to you in partnership with Big4Bio beginning in July. Additionally, LSN will be launching our newest product, the “Global Partnering Campaign (GPC), Fundraising & Licensing Partner Roadshow Management” a leading-edge platform that integrates LSN’s Investor and Licensing Partner Database and the Salesforce CRM. LSN customized this platform, leveraging years of experience as a broker/dealer helping early-stage life sciences companies attract capital and says it will be a game changer for early-stage startups seeking between $100K and $50M (seed-series B).

The show must go on and LSN is already prepping for RESI Boston September 18-20. RESI will return to Boston in-person on Monday, September 18 at the Boston Park Plaza, followed by two-days of virtual partnering, September 19-20. Register by June 30 to save with super early bird rates.

Sarah Issa

Interview with Sarah Issa, PhD VP of Marketing, Inova By Gregory Mannix, Vice President International Business Development, General Manager Europe, LSN

Gregory Mannix

Gregory Mannix (GM): What is the genesis behind the Biotech Perspective survey?

Sarah Issa (SI): This survey is one of our many efforts to make biopharma partnering more transparent and accessible. There is a clear gap between expectations and reality when it comes to ideal partnerships across all partnering phases: Find, Deal, Alliance. This project was a way to explore our initial assumptions from the biotech perspective as well as learn trends and insights around the current partnering landscape.

GM: How many years has the survey been running?

SI: After the successful launch of the pilot survey in 2022 and resulting report, this year will be the second time we run it.

GM: What kind of results has Inova been seeing?

SI: We had more than 100 biotechs reveal their preferred deal structures, their most common pain points, and rank the world’s largest pharma companies for the quality of their partnering experience. The report has been downloaded more than 800 times so far and the feedback from the readers has been very positive.

Main overall insights:

• Overall satisfaction with partnerships and partnering has increased over the last 5 years.
• 78% of biopharma companies rely primarily on conferences to connect with partners.
• Matching is increasingly difficult: Biotech struggles to find partners, top pharma accepts just 20% of conference meeting requests.

Most selected pain points:

• In the Find phase: Contacting the appropriate person (61%)
• In the deal phase: Misaligned expectations (42%)
• In the alliance management phase: Long or unclear timelines (42%)

GM: Could you share a link of 2022 results with our readers?

SI: The report is available for free on the website à https://go.inova.io/partnering-2030-the-biotech-perspective-2022

GM: What do you hope to gather from this 2023 survey?

SI: In 2023, we want to delve deeper into the main trends we saw in 2022 around the earlier stages of partnering, notably how and where to find a partner, with a focus on partnering congresses.

GM: Is the target audience the same or broader?

SI: The survey is still destined for companies with assets to partner in the biopharma sector and we are accepting participants from across the board (platform/tech, small molecule, medical device, digital health…)

GM: How do you plan to use and publish this 2023 data?

SI: The participant information remains anonymous, we plan on analyzing the results and publishing the report in Q4, distributing it across different channels for the industry. We’ll also be doing a webinar to discuss the results and trends and will invite the highest rating pharma company to share their best practices.

GM: What is Inova’s long-term goal?

SI: At Inova, our mission is to help bring science to life by connecting the right partners and accelerating the partnering process. With our industry-leading CRM, and now, a rapidly growing number of biotechs on our network, we are committed to becoming the leading biopharma match-making platform. By bringing sourcing and execution together, our goal is to offer a holistic solution to partnering, rendering it more effective, faster, cheaper, and accessible to everyone.

By Candice He, Vice President of Business Development, Global Investment Strategist, LSN

Dear RESI Community,

We are excited to present an exclusive opportunity to delve into the world of preclinical development and gain valuable insights from Radyus Research, one of our esteemed sponsors of RESI Boston June. Radyus Research hosted a captivating workshop titled “Maximizing Pre-clinical Development Success for VC-Backed Startups Through CRO Partnerships,” and we are delighted to share the recording with you.

Maximizing Pre-clinical Development Success for VC-Backed Startups Through CRO Partnerships

Preclinical development is often complex and non-linear. You need to coordinate several CROs, CDMOs and an army of consultants while project managing it all. Join our workshop as we discuss best practices in finding and engaging with the right CRO partners to increase your chance of getting to IND faster, with greater success. Choosing the right CRO partner not only saves you time, money and whole lotta nerves, but gets the attention of investors. Investors appreciate well thought out, fully integrated product development plans that clearly identify value inflection milestones, contingencies, and mitigation strategies. The right CRO partner will make you look good in the eyes of investors—make sure to take advantage of that!

• Marta New, PhD, MBA, CEO, Radyus Research (Moderator)
• Omar Khalil, PhD, General Partner, Sante Ventures
• Livija Deban, CSO, Prokarium Ltd
• John Foglesong, MBA, CEO, Grannus Therapeutics
• Paul Tebbey, PhD, MBA, Board Member & Advisor, Radyus Research

We invite you to watch the recording of this insightful workshop and unlock the secrets to enhancing preclinical development outcomes. Gain practical tips, expert strategies, and real-world examples that can propel your venture forward. By leveraging the knowledge shared in this workshop, you can optimize your approach to CRO partnerships and position yourself for greater success.

Moreover, if you are an industry expert interested in hosting workshops at future RESI conferences, we invite you to join our exclusive group of sponsors. Showcase your expertise, connect with a diverse community of early stage life science investors and innovators, and gain unparalleled visibility. Together, we can shape the future of the life science and healthcare sectors.

For sponsorship inquiries and to learn more about the RESI Conference, please visit our website or contact our team today at resi@lifesciencenation.com. Join us in fostering collaboration, driving innovation, and revolutionizing the future of healthcare.

A global venture capital and commercial development firm based in the USA is currently investing out of its sixth fund. In addition, the firm recently closed on a new fund through its Specialized Funds business unit, and is investing in companies domiciled in Singapore, Hong Kong and China. The firm generally looks to support companies with lead assets that can reach high value inflection points in 3-4 years and will consider opportunities in US, Canada, Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong and China.

The firm is currently seeking companies developing therapeutics or medical technologies to treat true unmet medical needs. The firm is therapeutic area agnostic, although the firm has historically been most active in immunology, oncology, and rare diseases. The firm typically prefers to invest in Series A/B rounds with a preference for lead assets between 18 months pre-IND and Phase 2a. Within devices, the firm generally prefers to invest in later stage opportunities, particularly those devices that have received market approval with early revenue.

The firm does not have any specific requirements for a firm’s management team. The firm is an active investor and seeks a director or observer position on a company’s board.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.

A strategic corporate venture fund of a pharmaceutical company actively invests in early-stage biotech companies that are of strategic interest to the parent pharmaceutical. The firm invests in global opportunities, but focuses primarily on North America and Europe.

The firm invests in early-stage therapeutics and platform technology companies. The firm’s main areas of interest include immunology and inflammation, kidney disease including transplant, serious diseases treated in hospitals, neurodegenerative disease, and rare disease. Regarding platform technologies, the firm is interested in drug discovery technologies for small molecule, peptide, nucleic acid, and other novel modalities, delivery systems (CNS, kidney disease), and cell therapies (excluding those targeting oncology). The firm invests primarily in pre-clinical opportunities, and can consider those as early as discovery stage. The firm does not actively seek opportunities in medical devices, diagnostics, or digital health at this time.

The firm has no specific company or management team requirements. The firm, alongside with the parent pharmaceutical company and an in-house Open Innovation Center, can help companies beyond capital. The firm can offer scientific expertise, and is able to collaborate on early stage proof-of-concept experiments and projects with emerging companies.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.

A venture fund formed by a group of high net-worth individuals in China has offices in USA and China. The fund is currently seeking investment opportunities globally with a focus on China and the US. Projects based in Canada, Germany, and Switzerland may also be considered.

The fund pays close attention to investment opportunities from seed and early stages to growth stage. For seed and early stage projects, the fund makes investments in convertible notes and equity and is flexible on investment size. For growth stage projects, the fund makes equity investments of US$1-5 million in businesses with valuation of up to US$18-20 million. Due to its evergreen fund structure, the fund takes a long-term approach to investment. The fund typically syndicates in a financing round and would like to partner with local co-investors in case of overseas investments.

The firm focuses on high-growth fields in medical devices, diagnostics, digital health, and consumer products. The firm is agnostic to disease areas. In diagnostics, the fund is interested in portable imaging devices, high-intensity ultrasound, point-of-care diagnostics, and molecular diagnostics. In digital health, the fund is interested in technologies that can be applicable to the Chinese market, such as connected devices, telemedicine, and patient-physician platforms. In consumer products, the fund in interested in OTC, nutrition and dietary supplements that have proven efficacy and are on market.

The firm is looking to work with serial entrepreneurs from seed and early stages to growth stage to form complete and strong teams. The fund typically cooperates with local co-investors who play a supervisory role in overseas operations.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.

A high-tech enterprise with offices in Europe and Asia focuses on the R&D, manufacturing and sales of implantable medical devices. The firm’s line of products include dural substitutes and cranioplasty implant for neurosurgery, and more. Now, the firm is actively seeking external opportunities for investment and other types of strategic partnerships. With regard to investment, the firm will generally invest within one million dollar per deal. The firm is open to global opportunities.

The firm is interested in expanding their business by investing and partnering with medical device companies. The firm is not interested in therapeutics, diagnostics, or digital health. The firm is most interested in Class III implantable medical devices, but will not exclude Class I or II. The firm is open to working with companies across all stages of development.

The firm has 2 main focuses within medical devices, according their stage of development:

(1) Products at early development stage: the firm is open to investing in companies at the idea-level, or those with a prototype that have not yet started clinical trials. In addition to direct equity investment in these stages, the firm is also interested in accelerating the path to market by helping with product development, regulatory and preclinical tests. The firm can act as a lead or co-investor.

(2) Products at later stage: For products that have demonstrated efficacy through clinical trials with patients, the firm is open to exploring beyond direct investment, such as joint venture, licensing, co-development, etc. The firm can provide strategic value to these companies and also assist with China market entry.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.