Category: Redefining Every Stage Investments (RESI)
The Redefining Every Stage Investments (RESI) Conference is an ongoing conference series that provides an international venue for life science companies across Biotech, Medtech, Diagnostics and Healthcare IT and to source investors from around the globe, create relationships, and eventually, secure funding.
By Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, Life Science Nation; Creator of RESI Conference Series
It took time and determination to create a global early stage funding and partnering ecosystem. With the advent of Life Science Nation’s (LSN) two up and coming RESI Asia events. LSN now has a truly unique funding and partnering infrastructure that can be utilized to bring regional technology assets catapulting into the global partnering and commercial distribution arena.
The life science market is an interwoven global fabric – countries in both hemispheres have been collaborating for decades; whether it be academia, foundations or governmental initiatives. Partnering takes the form of cross-border research collaboration, product development, investment and distribution.
Everything starts with international R&D, with advancement fueled by international links and partnerships that have been forged for decades to drive the science and help save lives. Government agencies in The U.S. and Europe have been working with Asian counterparts for years to form agreements on standardized testing and development mechanisms globally.
This standardization is critical so that drug, device and diagnostic product developers can choose from an array of global service providers offering better, faster, cheaper vehicles to validate and certify their products for global commercialization. A global one-stop-shop model for development services can dramatically impact the time factor holding the industry hostage for years.
There will be a tsunami of next generation healthcare products that will dramatically impact the world in the coming decade. The new science impacting next generation healthcare product development is well documented. Getting these new products validated and certified will require a global vision that takes advantage of service providers regardless of their geographic location.
Back to LSN and the RESI global ecosystem… scientist-entrepreneurs and fundraising CEOs can hop into the RESI partnering ecosystem and develop the investor, service provider and distribution channel partners that will get them to the market faster and cheaper.
The interwoven global fabric of the life science community has taken decades to develop: LSN, with our RESI partnering conferences, hopes to make is easier for the regional early stage players around the world to adroitly take advantage of the burgeoning global market.
By Claire Jeong, Director of Research, Asia BD, LSN
After another successful RESI Boston last week, we are excited to talk about our inaugural RESI Asia events, RESI Shanghai (November 12th) and RESI Taipei (November 14th)!
Life Science Nation would like to invite all early-stage life science companies across the globe to apply for the RESI Asia Innovation Challenge through our online portal. Selected finalists will present a poster showcasing their company and technology at our exhibition hall on the day of RESI. All participants will be presented with “RESI Cash” to “invest” in their favorite technologies. This time, we have another special opportunity for the Innovation Challenge finalists!
For the very first time, our RESI Asia conferences will feature a full day track dedicated to pitch sessions, during which companies will present a short pitch in front of a panel of active investor judges. At both RESI Shanghai and RESI Taipei, companies who are selected for the Innovation Challenge will also be granted an opportunity to be part of a pitch session. In combination, the Innovation Challenge and pitch sessions will provide unparalleled exposure to participating early-stage companies who are seeking to meet and grow relationships with new and existing investors for their fundraising efforts.
To shed some light on what the Innovation Challenge is like from the participating company’s point of view, the 1st place winner of the Innovation Challenge at RESI Boston, Zepto Life Technology, shared some comments about their experience at RESI. Jason Payne, Director of Business Development & Investor Relations at Zepto, said, “The RESI Innovation Challenge provided a truly excellent opportunity for my team to showcase Zepto’s pioneering GMR-based “lab-on-a-chip” biotechnology, ahead of our firm’s upcoming $30 million Series A round in 1Q 2020. RESI’s team of well-practiced professionals equipped Zepto with expert guidance throughout each step of the process — from our team’s initial creation of Zepto’s poster through the entire RESI conference’s celebration of Zepto’s eventual 1st Place finish. Moreover, the RESI conference’s excellent web-based scheduling system allowed Zepto to launch our firm’s Series A outreach in style, introducing my team to numerous potential investors with a simple click of my mouse. Thanks to RESI, Zepto’s fundraising process is off to a wonderful start!”
Carmit Levy, CEO of ResMetrix Medical, 3rd place winner in the Innovation Challenge at RESI Boston, added, “The RESI Innovation Challenge provided a great opportunity for Resmetrix to present our unique wearable system for accurately monitoring lung disease patients at home and alert for early signs of deterioration. It opened the possibility to meet other participants that were interested to hear more about Resmetrix technology on top of the meetings that we set before with investors, through the wonderful meetup system on RESI website. Winning 3rd place in RESI challenge also exposed Resmetrix to additional potential investors. Thank you RESI for this great opportunity!”
I’ve also interviewed Soundable Health’s CEO Catherine Song, who won 1st place at the RESI Philadelphia Innovation Challenge in June (you can read it here).
Yesterday’s RESI event brought together over 350 investors and over 350 startups in Boston’s Back Bay. There were so many meetings that RESI Partnering filled to capacity. LSN is delighted to have facilitated so many new connections, and we hope that these relationships continue to grow in the follow-up.
The RESI Innovation Challenge showcased 38 emerging startups in the biotech, medtech, diagnostics and digital health fields. All the competitors brought novel, exciting discoveries to the technology showcase, selected by LSN’s Expert System and scientific review team. RESI’s attendees chose the winners by using their RESI Cash tokens to cast votes for their favorite participants. We would like to introduce you all to the 3 top placed companies, as selected by the RESI ecosystem. Thank you, all, for taking part by casting your votes.
Zepto, an in-vitro diagnostics company, features uniquely-accurate and multiplex-ready “lab-on-a-chip” technology – co-developed with the Mayo Clinic – to improve patient outcomes through superior assay performance at patients’ exact points of need (a $12B market). Zepto’s fully-automated lab-on-a-chip Immunoassay Platform can conveniently deliver “central lab-quality” performance almost anywhere. Initially, Zepto is working to equip ERs and ambulances with highly-sensitive Troponin assays, accelerating myocardial injury detection. Meanwhile, Zepto’s portable Liquid Biopsy Platform can detect 1% cancer gene mutation (eg. PIK3CA, EGFR, KRAS) and achieve unparalleled specificity of 99.9%+ in less than 2 hours. This can revolutionize the $6B tissue-based biopsy market. Zepto seeks $30M, primarily to launch the Immunoassay Platform with D-Dimer assays and complete PIK3CA-focused product development on the Liquid Biopsy Platform.
YongYong Zhang, CEO & Co-Founder, Zepto Life Technologies
BOYDSense, Inc. is a medical technology company providing non-invasive and affordable tools for measuring critical biomarkers via exhaled breath. Breath-based metabolomics focuses on the capture, identification, and quantification of volatile organic compound (VOC) biomarker patterns in human breath and using them to diagnose and monitor chronic diseases, such as diabetes. BOYDSense’s first commercial product, the g-Sense Breath Meter, is a hand-held breath meter that can accurately predict blood glucose values from breath VOC’s. The g-Sense meter does not need consumables, is wirelessly enabled, has a companion mobile application and a public API. The device design is lifestyle-friendly, pocket-sized, with a seamless user experience, allowing consumers to frequently measure blood glucose without the typical barriers of cost, pain, or social stigma.
Respiratory diseases are leading causes of death and disability in the world. More than 250 million people suffer from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease (COPD) and 300 million from Asthma worldwide. Currently, respiratory deterioration is often detected too late, leading to sever exacerbation and complications, hospitalization and huge costs. Resmetrix is developing a wearable system (based on unique proprietary sensor built into a chest strap wirelessly connected to a smartphone app), that monitors at-risk respiratory patients in real-time, 24/7, anywhere, in any setting. Resmetrix system is the only system that detects small changes in a patient’s breathing pattern and provides immediate, early warning signs of deterioration in COPD patients at home, enable early window of intervention, early treatment and avoiding hospitalization.
Carmit Levy, Ph.D., CEO, Resmetrix Medical
RESI ASIA Innovation Challenge Deadline is Oct. 11th, 2019
By Karen Deyo, Senior Investor Research Analyst, LSN
Israel is frequently referred to as ‘The Startup Nation,’ with a lot of innovative technologies being developed in a multitude of sectors, including in healthcare. Over the past year, LSN has worked with the Israel Ministry of the Economy, the Israel Export Institute, the Israel Innovation Authority, the New England-Israel Business Council and several incubators and accelerators within Israel to bring these companies into the global RESI ecosystem.
In the 4 RESIs that have taken place so far in 2019, about 20 Israeli companies have been selected as finalists in the Innovation Challenge, with a few companies among the winners of these conferences. Yesterday, at RESI Boston, a group of these Israeli companies came to meet with the global investor attendees, including Novotalk, 1st place winner at RESI SF, PhotoPill Medical, 2nd place winner of RESI Europe, and Resmetrix, 3rd place winner yesterday. We look forward to seeing many more exciting companies from Israel at future RESIs, and hope that they will be as successful as the companies that have attended so far!
Izik Itzhakov of AEYE Health | Zohar Beeri of Novotalk | Ram Ben-Yehuda of PhotoPill Medical | Sharon Ben-Yehuda of PhotoPill Medical | Carmit Levy of Resmetrix Medical | Karen Deyo, Senior Investor Research Analyst, Life Science Nation
It’s less than a week to go until RESI Boston, and we’re excited to share the digital RESI Program Guide with you! Inside, you can take a look at our RESI Innovtion Challenge participants, investor panelists, exhibitors, and more. If you want to know who’s making waves in the early stage life science world, look inside this guide.
We look forward to seeing you all next Wednesday at the Westin Copley Place for this one-day partnering and entrepreneurship extravaganza, RESI Boston 2019.
By Gregory Mannix, Vice President International Business Development, LSN
One of the highlights of the RESI Boston First Coast Innovators’ Gathering (which features 16 top Tech Hubs from the US’s Northeast Corridor) is the RESI Pitch Challenge. After reviewing dozens of applications submitted to the Expert System by the constituent companies from these great programs, the LSN Review Committee has selected 9 companies as finalists to pitch at RESI before a panel of 5 investors. See below to meet these innovative startups.
The Pitch Challenge is a fantastic booster for these early-stage companies, providing the chance to pitch to a top line-up of investors, getting valuable questions and feedback that will help them hone their pitching skills, plus the chance to follow up with the investors on the panel after the conference is finished.
Good luck to all the RESI Pitch Challenge participants!
By Claire Jeong, Director of Research, Asia BD, LSN
In one of our recent newsletters, Dennis Ford, CEO of Life Science Nation, wrote about the Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference series’ expansion into Asia Pacific. LSN has established a global partnering ecosystem, and by bringing RESI to Asia we are forming a bridge between promising early-stage innovation and investors/strategic partners. Last month, several colleagues and I traveled to different parts of Asia with the ultimate goal of expanding LSN’s network, promoting the inaugural RESI Asia (11/12 Shanghai & 11/14 Taipei), and identifying synergies with various groups in the life science industry, as well as attending BIO Asia Taiwan.
I had the privilege of presenting a high-level overview of Life Science Nation and RESI to a very intriguing gathering in South Korea called “Innovative Medicine Salon”. The Innovative Medicine Salon started in 2012 in Daejeon – one of South Korea’s leading hub in science and technology – as a small gathering of life science professionals (scientists, professors, doctors, etc.) who would organize talks highlighting various thought-provoking topics regarding the theme of “innovative drug discovery”. As South Korea’s biotech ecosystem rapidly grew, the Innovative Medicine Salon continued to expand into other key cities such as Pangyo, another emerging city in the fields of biotech and IT, as well as Osong, Daegu, and Songdo. Earlier this year in May, South Korea President Jae-In Moon visited the Innovative Medicine Salon gathering in Osong as part of his Nationwide Economic Tour. During his visit in Osong, President Moon announced plans to help foster the South Korean biotech ecosystem, especially in the early stages of research and development (for those who are interested, I’ve added a more detailed history of the Innovative Medicine Salon at the end of this article).
▲ South Korea President Jae-In Moon visits the Innovative Medicine Salon in Osong (May 2019).
I participated in the July “Innovative Medicine Salon” in Pangyo, speaking alongside James Jungkue Lee, CEO of Bridge Biotherapeutics, a venture-stage biotech company that recently entered into a collaboration and global license agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim for their BBT-877 (autotaxin inhibitor for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis). Despite the session taking place on a weekday evening, there were over 100 life science professionals in the audience; from budding scientist-entrepreneurs to researchers, everyone in the audience shared a genuine curiosity for novel research and the global promise of South Korea’s biotech industry.
▲ LSN presented at the Innovative Medicine Salon in Pangyo (July 2019).
South Korea is a key example of the emergence and growth of biotech industries globally. With the ever-increasing surge of new therapies and technologies, the need for a global platform that can successfully connect early-stage innovations with investors and strategic partners is evident. LSN was founded in 2012 to fulfill this very purpose, when no full-fledged infrastructure for early-stage life science technologies existed.
Now could not be a better time for people to take advantage of the global ecosystem LSN has fostered, and we hope that our expansion into Asia could lead to more valuable connections that will ultimately lead to investment, licensing, and/or other win-win partnerships.
Special thanks to Sung Joo “SJ” Lee, Founder of Innovative Medicine Salon, for contributing to this article. SJ remarked that LSN and Innovative Medicine Salon have a lot of similarities – both were established in the same year and are working on growing the life science ecosystem with their own unique approaches. SJ has been inspired by LSN’s role in connecting early-stage innovations with investors and strategic partners, and hopes that LSN and Innovative Medicine Salon can continue to positively impact the life science community.
In previous years, South Korea’s bio industry was focused on the development of incrementally modified drugs (IMDs) and biosimilars. As the field of novel drug discovery and development continued to grow, so did the need for a “first mover” approach, as opposed to the existing “fast follower” strategy. The need for collaborating and interacting with various external experts, creating new ideas, and fostering open innovation became a high area of need in the industry. The “Innovative Medicine Salon” started in 2012 with a small group of researchers in Daejeon who shared this vision.
The group members gathered and listened to seminars of domestic and global experts on the theme of “innovative medicine” and debated about various topics. Their passion for innovative drug discovery and thirst for knowledge and exchange of information fueled discussions in the casual networking sessions that followed.
Information about the Innovative Medicine Salon quickly spread via word of mouth among academia, researchers, and other industry professionals. Attendance from other regions of South Korea grew, with people often trekking 2 hours or more to reach the event. It was only a matter of time before the Innovative Medicine Salon expanded to Pangyo, a city well-known for their thriving biotech and IT startup community. At Pangyo, 50 to as many as 180 attendees gathered every month, continuing the exchange of valuable opinions to everyone’s mutual benefit. Naturally, IMS fortified its position as an important support system for everyone embarking on new challenges in the field of innovative drug discovery. From thereon, Innovative Medicine Salon gatherings expanded into (1) Osong (home to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and other institutions dedicated to accelerating new drug development), (2) Daegu (home to the Korea Brain Research Institute and several biotech companies), and (3) Songdo (home to leading CMOs such as Samsung Biologics and Celltrion).
IMS is unique in that it is volunteer driven, independent from large institutions or corporations, which enables a more free, spontaneous academic exchange – the members who voluntarily take on operating roles include full-time biotech CEOs, professors, service providers, patent lawyers, and more.
Apart from offline meetings, the Innovative Medicine Salon operates a thriving Facebook group with over 4,000 members through which people regularly share and exchange information.
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