Next Phase Newsletter

By Gregory Mannix, Vice President International Business Development, LSN

At Life Science Nation we think that a strong and interconnected global ecosystem of life science strategic partners, investors and service providers will benefit the myriad entrepreneurs from around the globe in their quest to develop the latest technologies to treat and cure diseases. The fact that we took the Redefining Early Stage Investment (RESI) conference to Europe and Asia in 2019—for the first time outside of North America—is testament to this commitment.

Expanding the ecosystem to distant continents from our home base in Boston is a considerable challenge, but we think it’s worth it. We are making an effort to augment our contacts with major technology hubs in Europe and Asia in order to facilitate their emerging technologies joining the global ecosystem and accelerate their pathways to success.

In this context, LSN will be offering Fundraising Bootcamps in multiple cities in Europe in February. They are a chance for early-stage companies to learn about the fundraising ecosystem and the importance of honing their messaging to get the most traction with important partners. We hope you will be able to join us at one of our events. We would love to meet you!

Fundraising Bootcamp Schedule:

If you are a Tech Hub in Europe and would like to discuss hosting a Fundraising Bootcamp, please contact:

Greg Mannix (g.mannix@lifesciencenation.com)
Vice President International Business Development
Life Science Nation

By Lucy Parkinson, VP of Investor Research, LSN

RESI’s first Europe event in 2019 was a lively gathering, with RESI’s ecosystem of global early stage investors and technologies coming together with life science startups and regional hubs from Europe and beyond.  RESI is now heading back to Europe for a Paris event on March 23^rd.  We’re excited to be back, and we’ve put together a content agenda full of focused investor sessions on relevant topics for the occasion, including the return of our regional-focused Europe Tech Hubs panel. In addition, we will once again feature early stage investors sharing their perspectives on the investment landscape in core areas including Early Stage Therapeutic Investors, AI in Healthcare, and Diagnostics, and key partners will discuss their strategies in panels such as Big Pharma, Family Offices/Angels, and China Cross Border Partnerships. The content will also include workshops dedicated to helping entrepreneurs learn how to develop their investor marketing, valuation strategy and negotiation skills.  Our newest addition to the RESI Paris agenda is a full track of startup pitches, allowing companies to showcase their technologies in front of a panel of investors. Register here (link) for RESI Paris to see this content live and to meet one-on-one with investors in your space!

By Karen Deyo, Senior Investor Research Analyst, LSN

In a few short days, RESI will come to San Francisco for the sixth time and we are excited to release the digital RESI Program Guide! Take a look at the amazing panelists, exhibitors and RESI Innovation Challenge companies participating in this RESI. In addition, make sure to check out the new Featured Company Pitch Sessions, where 30 companies will pitch their innovative companies.

We look forward to seeing you next Tuesday, January 14^th, at the Marines’ Memorial Hotel and Resort for a day full of one-on-one meetings, panels and workshops, moving the needle for early-stage life sciences.

By Claire Jeong, Director of Research, Asia BD, LSN

On several occasions, I have covered the growth of South Korea’s life science ecosystem on our weekly LSN newsletter (1, 2). An increasing number of Korean companies are expanding on a global scale, and the same goes for venture capital investment – investors and large pharmaceuticals are more actively seeking cross-border investment and partnership opportunities.

On that note, I am pleased to showcase DAYLI Partners, a Gold Sponsor of RESI San Francisco and organizer of the “DAYLI Partners Pitch Session” from 11:00 – 11:50 am. DAYLI Partners is one of the most active venture capital firms in South Korea, and one of the few that focuses specifically on bio/healthcare investments. The firm is bringing 6 promising portfolio companies in the therapeutics & diagnostics sectors to RESI, and each company will be presenting a short pitch during this session. This is a very exciting partnership and we hope RESI will serve as a useful platform for these companies and global partners to connect.

If you are attending RESI and interested in seeing what each company has to offer, I highly encourage you to attend the session taking place at the 2^nd floor theater of Marines Memorial Club & Hotel. Below are detailed descriptions of DAYLI Partners and their 6 portfolio companies.

DAYLI Partners, based in Seoul, South Korea, is a healthcare-dedicated venture capital firm investing in therapeutics, diagnostics, medical device, and digital health. With ~$200M USD under management, DAYLI Partners invest in every stage of company from seed to pre-IPO, with a flexible ticket size tailored to each company. DAYLI Partners’ investment team consists of clinicians, researchers, healthcare analysts, and fund managers with deep industry and academic networks in the biotech and healthcare space.

Tomocube is an innovative medical device startup in Korea providing 3D holographic microscopy for scientists and clinicians. Tomocube is dedicated to delivering products that can enhance biological and medical research via novel optical solutions that can assist Tomocube in understanding, diagnosing, and treating human diseases.

Current optical microscopes only provide users with a 2D view of their sample. To get a 3D view, users must use expensive and invasive electron or confocal microscopes, which require extensive pre-preparation of samples and are not amenable to dynamic samples such as live cells. Tomocube’s platform enables researchers to measure nanoscale, real-time, dynamic images of individual living cells without the need for sample preparation.

Tomocube’s product, the HT-1, measures 3D refractive index tomograms of live cells and tissues, which will enable researchers and clinicians to: (1) non-invasively observe label-free 3D dynamics of live cells and tissues (2) retrieve unique cell properties including cell volume, shapes of sub-cellular organelles, cytoplasmic density, surface area, and deformability and (3) quantitatively study cell pathophysiology and efficacy of drugs. HT-1 uses states-of-the-art digital holographic techniques, quantitative phase imaging techniques and 3D reconstruction & cell analysis algorithms in order to display high-resolution 3D refractive index tomograms of cells.

HysensBio is a bio-venture company of oral medicine that develops medications for incurable, chronic dental diseases. After investigating for over 20 years, HysensBio identified the world’s first dentin-regenerating peptides. HysensBio focuses on creating customer values in dental and pharmaceutical industries.

HysensBio discovered that CPNE7 protein induces dentin formation. The physiological dentin regeneration was confirmed in vivo. It has developed functional peptides that show the same functions as the CPNE7 protein and has applied for a patent for these peptides in 12 countries. Based on this technology, HysensBio is developing a novel peptide medicine to treat dental caries and dental hypersensitivity.

Y-Biologics is a Korean biotech company focusing on the discovery and development of novel antibody therapeutics based on its human antibody library Ymax-ABL and Bi-specific antibody platform technology ALiCE. It has successfully secured its own human antibody library based on phage display to discover target antibodies and has developed 20 antibody candidates in various modalities. Following early works in discovery, it has recently developed a novel BsAb platform technology: ALiCE, which has the potential to address current unmet needs in fields of immuno oncology.

ALiCE has a strong potential to address these unmet needs by utilizing the unique 2-by-1 structure and the innate cellular assembly mechanism. ALiCE preserves the F(ab’)2 structure of the parental antibody to maintain high binding affinity to the cancer antigen and substitutes the Fc region with a monovalent Fv to induce immune response. Unlike other bispecific antibodies with mutated structures or linkers, ALiCE enables the creation of bispecific antibodies composed only of natural elements.

Y-_max ABL has a diversity of 10^11. It has its competitiveness in both quantity and quality. Quantity refers to the diversity of the library and the number of distinct elements in the collection, which directly reflects the probability of finding in the library an antibody against a given antigen. Quality means the singularity of elements comprising the antibody library. It is the first human antibody library in Korea, and has successfully discovered antibody candidates.

BIORCHESTRA is developing optimized RNA sequences and RNA delivery technology that deliver mRNA or microRNA regulators effectively and safely. Delivering multiple mRNAs at once into the cytoplasm can mimic multi-protein complexes that function as epigenetic enzymes. Delivered microRNA regulators can be able to control multiple protein function impaired diseases like neurodegenerative disease. Moreover, unlike DNA-targeting therapeutics like gene therapy, which may insert into chromosome permanently, RNA-based therapeutics can be temporary and this leads to reduce the risk of irreversible cellular DNA changes may induce tumorigenesis.

BIORCHESTRA have developed its proprietary Polyion complex micelle, the formulations for the delivery of RNA molecules to specific tissues. The company’s proprietary Polyion complex micelle have several advantages over the existing legacy RNA delivery systems, for example, increased tolerability (stability) and reduced toxicities with repeated administration. It is also homogenous micellar structure which is well quality-control platform. In addition, it easily able to be mounted by target moiety to deliver at desired tissues (Brain, Liver, Blood, Skeletal muscle and Cancer tissue).

Genoplan is 23andMe for insurance. The company provides B2B genetic testing service and genomic-data-driven SaaS CRM for insurance agents and brokers. U.S. market has led the explosion in consumer genetic testing due to its interest in ancestry genetic testing (genealogy). In contrast, ethnic homogeneity and low consumer genomics awareness has resulted in slow growth of Asian markets.

Genoplan’s unique business model of selling its genetic testing kits to insurance agents and brokers has shown great promise to solve this Asian puzzle. Agents and brokers are about four times more likely to make an insurance sale using Genoplan’s solution, compared to not offering the test. In addition, Genoplan’s Saas CRM provides technological support to enhance interaction between customers and insurance agents. Revenue is expected to reach $7 million in 2019, with monthly growth rate of 21% in the past 12 months. With offices in South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan (2020) Genoplan is targeting East and Southeast Asia markets, which is expected to reach $2.5 billion by 2024. Genoplan’s total funding to date is $19 million and is currently seeking Series C funding.

Noul is a four-year-old startup biotech startup focused on improving access to modern, more accurate and eco-friendly diagnostic tests for all, regardless of environmental and economic challenges through an automated AI-driven clinical testing platform, miLab.

miLab is a compact, automated, all-in-one diagnostics platform that perfectly replicates the 100-year-old, gold-standard clinical testing method.

The core technology of the miLab platform makes it possible for accurate clinical diagnostics to be conducted without water, without the use of earth-damaging chemicals and harsh reagents, and even without the traditional clinical lab infrastructure and skilled technicians greatly improving access to modern clinical diagnostics.

By Tomer Epstein, Head of Medical Device & Digital Health, Israel Export Institute

With the RESI SF event during JPM week less than 2 weeks away the Israel Export Institute, Israel Economic Mission to the West Coast and Invest in Israel are excited to partner with LSN and attend their annual event, RESI, one of the most prestigious investor events in the US, with over 500 under one roof.

We are bringing a delegation of 12 companies to join RESI conference at JPM week. These companies are truly a good representation of Israel’s Digital Health Nation, showcasing technologies and solutions in: Artificial Intelligence, Personalized Medicine, Remote Monitoring, Decision Support Systems, wearables and more.

Israeli Digital Health industry has its roots in a long history of using innovative communication technologies to improve healthcare delivery. With more than 25 years of expertise in implementing health IT, electronic medical records and business analytics; today, our Government is investing strongly in IT thus putting Israeli expertise in international demand.

The number of companies in the Israeli Digital Health sector has risen substantially in recent years, reaching more than 500 companies in 2019, all have a solution at Digital Health services that can be delivered through the web or mobile and can improve the lives of millions of people around the world.

Below are the companies that are attending RESI SF as part of the Israeli delegation – if you are interested in learning more, reach out to them on the partnering platform. Also, if you would like to learn more about the startups and technologies being developed in Israel, stop by the Israel Export Institute and Israel Economic Mission to the West Coast table in the exhibit hall!

The Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute, supported by member firms, private sector bodies and the government of Israel, advances business relationships between Israeli exporters and overseas businesses and organizations. By providing a wide range of export-oriented services to Israeli companies and complementary services to the international business community, the Institute helps build successful joint ventures, strategic alliances and trade partnerships.

The Foreign Trade Administration (FTA) at the Ministry of Economy and Industry is responsible for managing and directing the international trade policy of the State of Israel. The Foreign Trade Administration operates over 45 economic missions in countries all over the world. Each of the missions has a team that is dedicated to fostering trade and investment between local companies and Israeli companies.

Invest in Israel is an integrative body within the Ministry of Economy and Industry that serves as a one-stop shop for a wide range of potential and existing investors. Invest in Israel identifies lucrative investment opportunities, maps potential obstacles and help fast-track investment.

Meet the Israeli Innovators:

Augmedics aims to improve healthcare with cutting edge surgical technologies that solve unmet needs and instill technological confidence in surgical workflows. Its pioneering xvision system, allows surgeons to see the patient’s anatomy through skin and tissue as if they have “x-ray vision,” and accurately navigate instruments and implants during procedures.

GaitBetter promotes healthy aging by delivering a new and scientifically proven motor-cognitive training for gait rehabilitation and falls prevention. Our patent-pending solution was shown to prevent 50% of falls or better in the highest standard of research and in clinical service. We plan to start soft lunch in the US market in Q2 2020

IMNA enables care teams to gather key patient information between clinical visits, post discharge, and follow-up care. IMNA developed a proprietary comprehensive pain assessment platform which uses continuance patient monitoring, automated detection of pain through facial recognition, automated patient-centric behavioral and functionality questioners’ providers can now asses accurately and manage their patient’s pain and medication needs.

Lumen is a handheld device and app that measures your metabolism daily (RER), with a single breath, and tells you what metabolic fuel your body is currently using (Carbs Vs. Fats) – and provides a personalized daily meal plan. The Lumen system (app) guides people to make smarter choices about the foods they eat, their workouts and other lifestyle decisions they can take, helping them lose weight, build fitness, prevent diseases and above all, improve their metabolic health.

The Maverick Platform converts unstructured and fragmented text from patient records to structured information. As the only solution that masters each clinical specialty, understanding all clinical nuances to the degree of a specialist physician, the Maverick Platform is unique in offering substantially improved clinical and economic outcomes for benefitting patients, providers, and payers.

Navina develops an AI synthesis system to optimize medical data acquisition and analysis. It accesses all patient’s scattered medical information and provides the primary care physician a ‘one-stop-shop’ with only the relevant information, which allows better patient care and improved outcomes. Navina aims to enhance the physician with an AI tool that improves the delivery of care, along with quality goals and economical optimization.

Nucleai develops digital bio-markers based on AI tissue modeling that allows oncologists and pharma companies to match the optimal treatment for a patient (Mainly in immuno-oncology space). The companies use unique data sets cohorts accessible through partnerships with leading institutes in the US and Israel, The core technology was verified in clinical settings in several major medical centers in the US and Israel.

Follow-up of chronic patients is a costly challenge. Oxitone® has developed a full-suite, FDA-cleared solution for continuously generating automated medical follow-up. In one click, clinicians can unlock patients’ real-time intelligent insights and effortlessly follow-up hundreds of high-risk patients. Oxitone boosts value-based healthcare by delivering extraordinary patient, clinical and economical outcomes and reducing utilization cost.

PillTracker is a next-gen medication adherence platform that helps patients take the right pill at the right time. Our ‘smart’ packaging and cellular-enabled dispenser allow pharma customers to improve the patient experience while reducing the risk and cost of developing innovative drugs at the clinical and post-market stage.

Somatix is a provider of wearable-enabled Remote Patient Monitoring platform to elderly care facilities, hospitals and rehab centers. Our solution uses patented gesture detection technology and machine learning algorithms to analyze user’s gesture data in real-time, helping healthcare providers maintain continuous contact with and improve the wellbeing of their patients.

Taliaz is a health-tech startup applying science to the world’s data to create digital solutions that better understand brain-related disorders for personalized treatment and management. Powered by its PREDICTIX AI-health prediction algorithm, our first product, PREDICTIX-Antidepressant, integrates genetic, clinical and demographic data to optimize antidepressant treatment for faster patient recovery.

XRHealth telehealth platform consists of innovative, immersive, therapeutic applications which address a wide variety of neuro-cognitive, emotional and physical symptoms. These applications are combined with an advanced data portal which utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud-computing algorithms to deliver meaningful data analytics for monitoring and managing patients remotely.

By Jessica Yang, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

During RESI SF, BE Capital and Taipei Medical University (TMU) will organize a luncheon at 11 Floor, Track room 3 at Marines’ Memorial Club and Hotel from 12 pm to 1 pm PST. BE Capital x TMU will introduce its new Venture-Studio Style Investment Program. This program aims to increase the success rate of startups within the healthcare landscape in Asia and help startups expand their market reach and valuation. BE Capital x TMU is interested in early-stage startups who are fundraising and would like to enter the Asia Market.

All registered RESI attendees are invited to attend at no additional cost. Please RSVP here: https://forms.gle/CKSEKWEnKqstGPBQ7

Taipei Medical University has five world-class hospitals under their management, with a focus on innovation and smart hospitals. The program is individually tailored to accommodate international and local startups looking to venture into the Asian markets.

The partnership BE and TMU have fostered together is the cornerstone of their core competencies. BE and TMU’s unparalleled access to hospital facilities, research institutes, investors, healthcare experts, and other industry stakeholders will help startups to secure funding and expand the markets to Japan, Greater China, and Southeast Asia.