Next Phase Newsletter

By Karen Deyo, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

This past Monday, November 5^th, at RESI NYC, all attendees, including scientist-entrepreneurs, investors and service providers, walked through the exhibit hall at the Midtown Hilton where the Innovation Challenge was taking place. The 30 finalists participating displayed their technologies, spanning from therapeutics to medical devices, diagnostics and digital health. These finalists were selected based on how investable they are, with criteria evaluating both innovation and commercial viability. We wish success to all of the finalists, but we offer congratulations to the 3 winning companies.

First Prize: Promaxo

Promaxo is a medical technology company that develops and commercializes office-based modular MRI and MRI based technologies. The Company is currently focused on advancing the solutions for prostate disease management and other urology and pelvic conditions.

Lucy Parkinson, VP of Investor Research, Life Science Nation | Amit Vohra, CEO & President, Promaxo | Dinesh Kumar, Chief Operations Officer, Promaxo | Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, Life Science Nation

Second Prize: Keriton

Keriton Kare is a NICU feeding management, lactation analytics and patient engagement platform with end-to-end automation to improve process efficiency, reduce risk of erroneous feeds and enhance breastfeeding outcomes through a suite of mobile applications – Kare Mom and Kare Nurse.

Lucy Parkinson, VP of Investor Research, Life Science Nation | Rich Mager, CEO, Keriton | Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, Life Science Nation

Third Prize: Thermaquil

Thermaquil discovered a completely new way of managing pain. We are first addressing the heart of the opioid crisis by treating post-surgical pain. Our minimally invasive device will be inserted at the time of surgery by the surgeon or anesthesiologist and later pulled out by the patient’s physician when recovery is complete. Thermaquil’s system creates a virtual filter across any nerve that allows patients to dial-in 0-100% how much of the nerve’s firing gets through by gently warming and cooling a short section of the nerve. Reversible thermal nerve blocks are a new mechanism of pain treatment distinct from drugs and electric stimulation. Thermaquil seeks to reduce or eliminate the need for opioids through non-addictive thermal nerve blocks.

Lucy Parkinson, VP of Investor Research, Life Science Nation | Stephen Popielarski, CEO & Co-founder, Thermaquil | Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, Life Science Nation

By Karen Deyo, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

With RESI NYC just around the corner, we at LSN are excited to announce the finalists for the Tech Hub Pitch Challenge. These 8 companies, constituents of Tech Hubs located in New York and the surrounding states, have been selected to pitch to a panel of investors. Each company will have 5 minutes to pitch followed by a Q&A session including feedback from the investors.

The Pitch Challenge will be moderated by Dennis Ford, CEO & Founder, Life Science Nation. The investor panelists are:

• Barbara Schilberg, CEO, BioAdvance
• Steve Saheb, Associate, Brace Pharma Capital
• Rena Rosenberg, Partner, Robin Hood Ventures
• Nishant Rastogi, Senior Associate, New Rhein Healthcare
• Merom Klein, Entrepreneur Mentor, Keiretsu Forum

Make sure to attend the Pitch Challenge, starting at 1:00 PM and featuring the following companies.

A2A Pharmaceuticals (JLABS NYC)

A2A Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a biotechnology company committed to the advancement of innovative therapeutic agents to treat life-threatening diseases with high unmet need and inadequate treatment options, including cancer, bacterial infections, and muscular dystrophy, among others.

Our SCULPT platform radically accelerates lead drug discovery and optimization through a systematic fragment-based drug design approach that leverages AI and deep learning to design pre-optimized molecules, highly selective to their target and with drug-like properties incorporated, reducing the time and cost of drug development.

Bright Cloud International Group (Entrepreneur’s University)

Bright Cloud International has developed, patented and tested technology that increases independence for individuals with dementia or stroke. For example, we made someone who had no longer been able to read for years, do it again in only three weeks. Current health care does not focus on the arms of stroke survivors and medication does not really work for dementia. Our proprietary adaptable and intensive gamification technology addresses these needs for improved rehabilitation and cognitive care. At clinic or at home. We would like to discuss our funding needs in a follow-up meeting.

CaroGen Corporation (UConn TIP)

CaroGen is developing transformative immunotherapies for infectious diseases and cancer, initially focusing on a cure for chronic Hepatitis B Virus (HBV). CaroGen’s virus-like-vesicle (VLV) platform was licensed from Yale. Our lead asset (CARG-101) has shown efficacy in a chronic HBV animal model. We have selected a clinical candidate, discussed our development plan with the FDA and are seeking investment opportunities or corporate partnership to allow us to conduct IND enabling studies, file an IND, and advance our HBV product to the clinic by the 3Q2019.

Corfigo (Entrepreneur’s University)

Corfigo Inc. is an early stage medical device company est. Delaware 2015. We are developing the HeArTPAD Cryo-Ablation System that treats cardiac arrhythmias for patients suffering from persistent Atrial Fibrillation. It utilizes a video-guided surgical approach (sub-xiphoid or laparoscopic/trans-diaphragmatic) to ablate the posterior wall of the left atrium and can be used concomitantly with an EP catheter ablation. The HeArTPAD and its video enabled cannula are disposable devices intended for use in cardiac ablation from an epicardial (outer surface of the heart) location. The HeArTPAD has an insulating chamber to simultaneously protect adjacent structures from unintentional ablation injury. Designed for minimally invasive ablation, our proprietary technology utilizes potent cryothermy energy coupled with sophisticated sensor technology.

Digitouch Health (BioInc)

Digitouch Health will empower anyone to measure their blood pressure with clinical-grade accuracy just by pushing a button. Upon achieving FDA clearance, Digitouch will enable billions of people to monitor hypertension much more conveniently, leading to greater awareness and control rates for hypertension, the primary risk factor for heart failure, stroke, and other cardiovascular events. Digitouch already raised $800K from the Pritzker-Vlock family. Achievement of FDA clearance should motivate smartphone and other consumer electronics manufacturers to license this technology and build it into their devices. Digitouch will also build and market standalone systems, including a medical tricorder. The potential exit valuation is >$500 million with several intermediate exit opportunities.

Grektek Holdings, Inc (NJIT)

Grektek has created everbeat, a wearable medical device that continuously and comprehensively monitors patients who have been diagnosed with, or who are at risk for, atrial fibrillation. The everbeat system is different from the competition because it works with both Apple and Android smartphones, integrates an optical sensor for active background monitoring and a clinical-grade ECG for more precise assessment, and tracks sleep, steps, medication and more through a simple-to-use watchband.

Designed by cardiologists, we are focused on helping physicians leverage everbeat to improve both their patient outcomes and their bottom line.

Raadysan Biotech, Inc. (BioInc)

We are a clinical stage biotech company and we are developing the first targeted therapy for Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC).

Currently, there are no targeted therapies available in the market for the treatment of TNBC, which is the most aggressive type of breast cancer with poor survival rates. We have found a unique solution for this unmet problem by identifying a novel biomarker for TNBC, which also functions as an excellent drug target. We have developed revolutionary therapies that specifically inhibit this drug target and believe our therapies will be effective against all kinds of breast cancers.

We intend to license these therapies to pharmaceutical companies, following Phase 1a/b clinical trials and anticipate a market of about $18.2 billion.

Sonostics, Inc (Entrepreneur’s University)

Sonostics develops pacemakers for our “second hearts.” The soleus muscles in the calf of the legs are responsible for returning the blood, which collects into the lower limbs due to the influence of gravity, back to the heart, and so these muscles are commonly called our “second hearts.” About 50% of adult Americans have second heart insufficiency resulting in reduced cardiac output and numerous associated health complications (e.g. venous hypertension, chronic fatigue, hypotension and cognitive dsyfunction). Sonostics has developed, and is currently marketing, the HeartPartner, a non-invasive device which retrains the soleus muscles and reverses the complications of second heart failure. A second generation, portable technology, is under development.

By Karen Deyo, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

RESI NYC is just over 2 weeks away, on Monday, November 5^th, and we are happy to announce the thirty finalists for the RESI Innovation Challenge. The Innovation Challenge finalists span from therapeutics to medical devices to diagnostics and digital health. The Innovation Challenge is designed to allow the finalists a chance to showcase their technology to the investors and strategic partners attending RESI, beyond the one-on-one Partnering Forum – make sure to stop by and look at their innovative technologies! Each attendee will receive “RESI Cash” to “invest” in their favorite company (or companies). The top three companies will receive prizes at the end of the day, so make sure to go through the exhibit hall and check out all of the IC Finalist posters!

Thank you to all of the amazing companies that applied to the Innovation Challenge – it is exciting to see what new technologies could soon be reaching market. See you in New York City!

Therapeutic

Diagnostic

MedTech Device

Digital Health

By Claire Jeong, Senior Research Analyst, LSN

We can’t believe the RESI NYC Conference is only a month away! With this being our second year at NYC, the LSN team is truly excited about all of the innovation that we are gathering for the conference. We are particularly impressed by the global pool of applicants for the upcoming RESI NYC Innovation Challenge, with many startups from South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia applying to be part of the Top 30 to showcase their technologies.

We have decided to extend the deadline to Monday, October 8^th, to provide more time for startups who were interested in applying for this Innovation Challenge, but may not have had enough time to complete their applications. We are accepting submissions through our online application portal, and companies are also welcome to submit their application and supplementary materials to RESI@lifesciencenation.com.

Companies are selected based on multiple criteria, including the quality of the company’s scientific work, the strength of the management team and how well-positioned the company is to receive investment. We are impressed with the quality of the companies who we invite as Innovation Challenge finalists – we have seen as many as 50% of companies in an Innovation Challenge receive funding within one year of the conference.

Recently, we interviewed the first-place winner of our last Innovation Challenge at RESI Boston and you can read about his experience here. We also encourage interested applicants to read our recent article on how to be successful in the Innovation Challenge.

We hope you find these resources helpful, and we look forward to receiving your applications!

Dwight Meglan

An interview with Dwight Meglan, Founder/CTO, HeartLander Surgical, Inc. – By Greg Mannix, VP of International Business Development, LSN

Greg Mannix

Dwight has a fascinating background in robotics. In fact, there are probably not many people out there who can rival his experience applying robotics to medical applications, which he has been doing since the 1990’s in companies ranging in size from start-ups to Medtronic, where Dwight still collaborates. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Dwight has started a company, HeartLander, that was the talk of the Exhibit Hall at our past RESI conference because of it’s surprising technology. Imagine a tiny robot that can move along the surface of a beating heart—simulating the movement of an inchworm—to deliver therapy to places not accessible until now. That’s what HeartLander does, and Dwight got so much interest in his little robot that he was the winner of the Innovation Challenge.

Greg Mannix (GM): Congratulations Dwight on winning the IC. Did you make some good connections at the RESI conference?

Dwight Meglan (DM):  Yes, we did. I think we caught the eye of quite a few walk-bys because we had a prototype of the robot with us and were doing a demo. We met a lot of people right there at our poster. We also had some good partnering meetings.

GM: How did you juggle the partnering meetings and time at the poster? You seem to have done very well.

DM: Actually, we were very selective about who to meet with. We are very early stage. But the meetings we did schedule, we met the investors at the assigned table and said “Hey, would you like to come see our poster?”. And we ended up having our meetings right there.

GM: Did you get any traction with the investors you spoke to?

DM: Yes, I think we did. We are following up with several of them, and some others want to stay in touch and reconnect when we have more preclinical data. My focus was to try to get across two things to the investors: one, how this technology will help make the world a better place; and two, how this technology will make economic sense. If they understood those two points, I think we were successful.

GM: Why do you think you won the IC?

DM: I just asked everybody to invest their RESI cash in us. If you don’t ask, you don’t receive!

GM: Sound words of advice. Thanks, Dwight.

HeartLander Surgical, Inc.

The HeartLander System’s new approach to debilitating ventricular (heart) conditions comprises low cost disposables and an inexpensive, reusable controller: 1. Disposable sensor array placed on the outside of the torso 2. Disposable, tethered, percutaneously delivered, epicardial walker with multimodal sensing (e.g., Doppler ultrasound for avoiding coronaries) and insertable needle for saline-enhanced radiofrequency ablation (creates small, precise lesions) or for delivering therapy into the myocardium 3. Control System that integrates sensor data, maps the heart defect, actuates the walker, plans actions, and provides a visualization display screen and control interface for the physician. Our first clinical focus (NIH-funded through animal PoC) is ventricular tachycardia, but the technology platform can be used for myocardial regeneration therapies, ventricular reshaping, and biventricular pacing.

By Bryanna Allison, Business Development Manager, LSN

RESI wrapped up its 19^th conference this month in Boston, with a record turnout and plenty of great connections made to move the needle in the life sciences. For some time now, the investors and strategic partners who regularly attend RESI have asked us to help them gain exposure to the earliest stage technologies being developed. Our idea was to create a new addition to the traditional RESI content and call it the First Coast Innovator’s Gathering, an event to showcase technology hubs from the “First Coast” – DC to Boston – and the early-stage companies being developed within their programs.

The feedback we got was extremely positive as the data below attests to:

• 21 Tech Hubs had a table at the Gathering
• 75 entrepreneurs from these Hubs attended
• 36 projects presented a poster in the First Coast Exhibit area
• 25 companies applied to the Pitching Competition
• 8 finalists pitched to a panel of 6 investors
• All the finalists were offered the chance to follow up with the panelists

RESI has become the conference of reference for connecting key players in the early-stage life science space. The turnout and level of engagement of investors, strategic partners, fundraising CEOs and specialized service providers is completely unique, and the Innovator’s Gathering in Boston has added a new dimension to the conference.

All of the positive feedback has encouraged us to adopt this format at future RESI conferences, so we are busy getting the word out to tech hubs in the Greater New York area for our upcoming New York conference to be held in Midtown Manhattan on November 5^th.

By Gregory Mannix, Vice President International Business Development, LSN

LSN holds a high-profile life science competition at every RESI conference – the Innovation Challenge. Thirty early-stage fundraising companies with top-tier life science technologies are selected as finalists to exhibit a poster display of their programs to hundreds of investors and other conference attendees.  These companies compete for the exposure and visibility of being named as the top Innovation Challenge company. So you might ask: out of the hundreds of applications we receive, how do we choose the top thirty?  The LSN scientific review team has compiled a list of attributes we look for in a company and its IC application.

While the following applies to the Innovation Challenge application itself, the criteria and the tips we provide are also guidelines for companies to use in their fundraising efforts. Much of our evaluation and the questions we ask are based on standard criteria that entrepreneurs will face when speaking with investors.

What are the key elements of a high-scoring company?

The LSN scientific review team uses a detailed rubric with a 200-point scoring system. Our evaluation process is based not only on scientific merit, but also on how ready the company is to present to an investor (“investor-readiness”). A perfectly scored company would have a transformational technology that can achievably address a highly unmet need using a differentiable, novel approach or target. Alongside high innovation, differentiation, unmet need and market fit, the 200-point company would have a broad IP position, an experienced management team and CEO with top-tier advisors and strategic alliances with manufacturing, commercial or clinical partners. The company will also receive high marks for having what we call “investor-ready” marketing collateral (executive summary, pitch deck, website).

Application Tips

Clearly describe your technology.

Like any marketing material, you need to be clear. Be sure you understand and answer the questions fully. The team has seen unclear descriptions of a company’s technology is and its significance in improving on current technology, making it difficult to evaluate.

Be forthcoming in your answers.

The team frequently reviews applications that state they have no competitors in the space, when that is not actually the case. Even novel products have competitors; there is a standard-of-care for any given disease or condition.  If your product represents an incremental improvement, just say so.  It can still be compelling!

For example, competitors for your disease-modifying therapeutic may be symptom-treating therapeutics in the same indication that are either commercialized or being developed. You should identify these symptom-treating therapeutics and highlight your novel, targeted approach that makes your product disease-modifying.

Explain your current status in detail.

Outline everything you have in terms of your current standing, while also providing your outlook on where you hope to go. Avoid ambiguous statements such as, “CEO is an experienced entrepreneur”. Instead, provide details that highlight the CEO’s experience – years as an entrepreneur, number and names of companies exited, background expertise, etc.

Provide near-term and-long-term projections.

If you do not have certain criteria, such as a strategic alliance or IP, it’s OK. State your current standing and provide what steps you are currently taking to reach those milestones. For Alliances and Collaborations, state your partners and likely partners (even if you just have a verbal commitment); for IP status, state how many patents you have filed or are planning to file. Providing us with your strategy is better than a simple yes or no.

Provide sufficient detail, but no need to overdo it.

You shouldn’t finish this application in 5 minutes, nor should it take you 5 hours. Your answers should be brief but detailed.  We have received hasty, effortless applications that were subsequently quickly given a low score. On the other hand, as a fundraising company, you shouldn’t need to spend an excessive amount of time on the application. These are all straightforward questions that you should be familiar with and be comfortable answering, as your executive summary should contain all of this information. This application is the backbone of our evaluation process and is, essentially, your executive summary to us.

Send us your marketing collateral.

If you have marketing collateral, send it. This includes your pitch deck, executive summary, website, videos – any supplemental material that can boost our understanding of your technology and whether your company is investor-ready. The application provides limited space – while this forces you to get straight to the point, supplemental material explains what an application cannot (i.e. figures, graphs, pipeline, non-confidential data, etc.).

Overall, applying for the Innovation Challenge is great practice for fundraising companies. For those who have yet to apply, be sure to take note of these suggestions and apply here by October 3^rd!