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Mark Your Calendar: RESI Philly Conference on June 3rd, 2019

28 Feb

By Nono Hu, Director of Marketing, LSN

The Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference makes its return to the BIO International Convention on June 3rd in Philadelphia, PA. This is the third time LSN has held a RESI Conference during BIO week, which promises to bring more than 16,000 life science executives to Philly.

RESI specializes in early stage investor partnering and provides an opportunity for early-stage life science companies across Drugs, Devices, Diagnostics and Digital Health to meet one on one with investors and strategic partners from around the globe.  At RESI, entrepreneurs can create relationships that will potentially lead to receiving investment. RESI Philadelphia 2019 conference also invites the earliest stage companies from the discovery stage through venture stage: companies seeking grants, seed rounds, angel investments, Series A, and Series B funding.

Registration is now open at the Early Bird Rate. If you would like to learn more about RESI Philadelphia and how the event can power your summer fundraising plans, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Book One-on-One Investor Meetings: RESI Europe Partnering Opens on Monday 25th February

21 Feb

By Lucy Parkinson, VP of Investor Research, LSN

With just days to go until RESI Partnering opens, investors have been flocking to RESI Europe from around the world. You can see below for who’s going to be there – from major pharma firms to family offices to regional and global VCs, there’s an abundance of capital on the table. If you’d like to be in the RESI Partnering action when we launch on Monday, you can register now.

Confirmed RESI Vienna Investors

As of Feb. 20th

Stetson Family Office Global BioForum Brings its Early Stage Investors to Vienna RESI Europe

21 Feb

 

Chuck Stetson

 An interview with Chuck Stetson, CEO, Stetson Family Office

– By Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, Life Science Nation; Creator of RESI Conference Series

Dennis Ford

The Stetson Family Office has been active in driving global initiatives between two key investor groups: family offices that have desire and dollars to impact global health, and regional angel groups who have the ability to vet and recommend compelling early stage life science technologies. These alliances have the power to accelerate early stage investment across the silos of drugs, devices, diagnostics and digital health. There is a multitude of global early stage life science startups that are in need of early stage funding partners who can provide the capital to develop the next generation healthcare products. These next generation products will have a great impact on virtually everybody on the planet.

Recently Dennis Ford, CEO of Life Science Nation and the creator of the Redefining Early Stage Investments Conference Series (RESI) sat down with Chuck Stetson, the CEO of the Stetson Family Office and founder of the Global Family Office BioForum, to get an update on Chuck’s global initiatives.

Dennis: Chuck, what exactly is the Global Family Office BioForum (GFOB)? How many Family Offices participate and how many cities throughout the world?

Chuck: I created and launched the entity Global BioForum because like my own family office, I discovered there were other family offices that are genuinely interested in philanthropy and social impact investing in healthcare, but finding and vetting the technology assets proved to be a challenge for them because of limited staff. To meet the challenge I created a strategy to match up regional angel networks with up to 40 members vetting each deal with regional family offices within the early stage life science arena. I did this by creating a strategic relationship with Life Science Nation and bringing my family office groups to the RESI conference events where they are able to connect with angels and also find technology that they may want to invest in. Over the last year I have hosted 4 very successful family office luncheons at the RESI events and will be bringing some of my family office network to the RESI Vienna Conference on March 25.

Currently we have an affiliated group of 260 active family offices meeting quarterly in 19 cities in the U.S., Europe and Asia, with a stated goal to help to strengthen the life science early stage ecosystem. On April 23-24th, 2019, there will be a Global BioForum gathering in Chicago and will be held in cooperation with the Angel Capital Association (ACA). Founded in 2004, ACA is the official industry alliance of 13,000 angel investors working in 260 organizations. My relationships with LSN and ACA have helped connect the capital with the early stage life science products and we are already seeing great results.

Dennis: What are the direct goals that you have set with the Stetson Family Office and the Life Science Nation alliance?

Chuck: Early stage product development is all about securing funding to get the products developed faster. It is my personal goal to create programs that will aid international life science startups in raising seed capital, Series A and B funding rounds, and also launch a Boston-based immersion fundraising and partnering program run by LSN and integrated into the RESI conferences to prepare and educate fundraising CEOs on how to go from canvassing regionally to canvassing globally for potential investors. This would essentially prepare and integrate these startups into LSN’s global partnering ecosystem, including the Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference Series in Boston, San Francisco, Europe and Asia and access to LSN’s partner network.

Dennis: Would you like to add some more commentary on your efforts?

Chuck: In summary, I want to use the Global BioForum to help provide the seed rounds to move compelling technology out of the labs and onto the commercial development path. It will focus specifically on years 0 to 3, commonly referred to as “The Valley of Death”. Another goal is to advance women as investors and as entrepreneurs in the life sciences. Last but not least, is direct preliminary interest in products that impact healthy brain, diabetes, obesity and heart disease, although all products are welcome.

Chuck Stetson, CEO, Stetson Family Office

Eugene W. Stetson started the Stetson Family Office shortly after he personally led the buyout of The Coca-Cola Company through a public offering in August 1919 by the Guaranty Trust Company of New York, where he subsequently served as Chairman and just before he died and organized, he organize with the much smaller J.P. Morgan. At his death, Eugene was Coca-Cola’s longest serving member of the Board and of the Executive Committee. Chuck Stetson, the third generation running the family office, is an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and philanthropist. The Stetson Family Office started Healthcare Impact Foundation, a 501-c-3 organization, in 2017 to bring capital and management expertise to local life science companies and to build and maintain an efficient life science eco-system composed of R&D facilities, incubation facilities, venture capital investors, angel investors, family office investors, and networks of experts in science, management, industry, reimbursement and public policy. Stetson Family Office has set up a unique Global Family Office BioForum with family offices around the globe working closely with their local healthcare innovation. Family Offices are responding with excitement.

Hear Insights from Big Pharma Panelists at RESI Europe

21 Feb

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

claire

Life Science Nation is busily preparing for our inaugural RESI Europe event at Vienna, Austria on Monday, March 25th, we are excited to announce our Big Pharma panel! There is no doubt that major pharmaceuticals are continuing to explore creative approaches in partnering with early-stage companies, extending beyond the scope of traditional therapeutics. Companies fully understand the value of developing strategic partnerships with big pharma, but it can be a challenge to get in front of the right team.

As companies want to better understand the implications of partnering with big pharma, this panel has been one of our most popular topics since the inception of RESI – here is our lineup of panelists:

Florence Dal Degan, R&D Innovation Sourcing Director at Novo Nordisk

Florence Dal Degan joined Novo Nordisk A/S in May 2016 as R&D Innovation Sourcing Director. The R&D Innovation Sourcing team of Novo Nordisk is global, with a presence at the Danish Headquarters, as well as a regional presence in Shanghai, Boston, New-York and Paris. Florence is based in Paris and is responsible for search and evaluation of new opportunities within Europe and Middle-East across the therapeutic areas that Novo Nordisk is dedicated to, such as diabetes, obesity, NASH, chronic cardiovascular diseases, nephropathy and haemophilia. Florence has a PhD in biochemistry from The National Institute of Agronomy (Agro-Paris Tech, France). She has over 20 years of experience in Research and Development in academic, biotech and pharma environments. Since 2000, Florence has worked with drug discovery and early development and has held several positions as group leader within R&D. She has been working with external innovation since 2012.

Olaf Koenig, Director, International Business Development at Amgen

Olaf Koenig joined Amgen’s Global Business Development team in May 2017. He is Director, International Business Development and responsible for ex-US business development transactions. He is based in Amgen’s European Headquarter in Rotkreuz, Switzerland. He has over 20 years of international experience in a variety of business development and commercial roles, and a track record of leading and closing of several in-licensing, out-licensing and M&A transactions. Prior to joining Amgen, Olaf was Vice President, Business Development & New Product Planning Europe at Daiichi Sankyo. Before joining Daiichi Sankyo, he served as Director Business Development at Merck KGaA. Olaf began his career as Product Manager at Molecular Simulations in Cambridge, UK. Olaf holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Berne, Switzerland.

Natalia Novac, Director, Emerging Technology & Innovation, Corporate Business Development at Eli Lilly & Co

Natalia Novac is a part of the Emerging Technology and Innovation Group and is responsible for search and evaluation of novel healthcare technologies across all Eli Lilly indications in Europe.  Natalia is involved in the scientific evaluation of novel life science assets coming from multiple venture funds where Eli Lilly participates as a limited partner. Natalia is an experienced pharmaceutical industry professional with solid background in oncology, endocrinology, immunology and multiple sclerosis. Natalia has a PhD in molecular biology and MSc in Microbiology. Natalia’s LinkedIn

Chris Church, Manager, Partnering and Strategy at AstraZeneca

Chris joined AstraZeneca in November 2014 as a scientist, team and project leader for cardiovascular, renal and metabolic disease (CVRM) with a focus on obesity and type 2 diabetes. Chris transitioned to the AstraZeneca partnering and strategy team helping to coordinate in and out-licensing opportunities for CVRM together with supporting the local and international biopharma ecosystem.

Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Chris obtained a First Class degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Bath, UK and completed a PhD at the University of Oxford and MRC Mammalian Genetics Unit, Harwell, UK. This was followed by a postdoctoral position at Yale University, USA and MBA with the Open University.

In case you are curious about what the panel discussion will look like, here is a recap of the Big Pharma panel during RESI SF 2018 (although many different topics will be addressed in the upcoming panel).

If you are not signed up for RESI Europe yet, we hope you can join us and meet companies/investors that fit your partnering objectives and strategies!

Are You Ready To Pitch To Investors? Enter the RESI Europe Innovators’ Pitch Challenge

14 Feb

By Karen Deyo, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

LSN first introduced the Innovators’ Pitch Challenge at RESI Boston in September of 2018. This new aspect of RESI was designed to give the earliest stage companies spinning out from incubators, accelerators and universities a platform to pitch to a panel of investors.  The aim of the RESI Innovators’ Pitch Challenge was to give these companies a chance to practice their investment pitch and get valuable feedback from real investors. To get a perspective on the value of participating in the Innovators’ Pitch Challenge, I spoke to Scott Stout, CEO of MedVector Clinical Trials (one of the companies selected to participate in the West Coast Innovators’ Pitch Challenge at RESI San Francisco), and Ravi Mistry, an angel investor part of TiE Silicon Valley Angels, who was part of the investor panel at the same event.

Especially for those earliest stage companies just starting their first major fundraise, the ability to practice your pitch before a panel of investors can be helpful. The questions asked by the experienced investor panelists can help the participants anticipate what investors will ask when pitching to them, as well as helping you identify what areas of your pitch may need to be clarified. As an angel investor and very active mentor for entrepreneurs, Ravi pointed out how valuable an exercise this can be, both as a way to potentially catch the interest of the investor panelists, as well as a practice for the future. Ravi also noted that the diverse range of expertise the investors had, across all sectors of the life sciences, can be helpful to the exercise.

Beyond the value of practicing his pitch, Scott said that one of the major benefits of applying to and participating in the Pitch Challenge was the additional exposure he received via RESI’s website and on-site guide, and the ability to highlight to current and potential investors that their company was selected to participate by LSN’s scientific review team. This serves as valuable external validation of the company and technology.

To apply for the European Innovators’ Pitch Challenge, please fill out the application and make sure to indicate that you are a tech hub constituent!

Accelerating clinical trials speeds up medicine. MedVector is a turnkey solution using telemedicine to increase clinical trial participation, generate revenue for hospitals, reduce costs to clinical trial sponsors, and bring life-saving, advanced medicine to market more quickly.

Ravi Mistry, Member, TiE Angels

Ravi Mistry is a leader, entrepreneur, angel investor, educator and mentor. His professional career has spanned the life sciences, technology, non-profits, and academics as Founder, Board Chairman/Director, President, Vice President, Sr. Director, Manager, and Adjunct Professor. He brings experience covering all areas of business operations. He has managed closing of Seed, Series A/B funding totaling over $35M. Ravi served as VP/BizDev at MedTree, a life sciences start-up, and as Executive Director of Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar Foundation to raise endowment funds. Previously, Ravi was member of founding team of Virident Systems, a technology startup acquired by HGST/Western Digital. Ravi has held management positions in the life sciences companies DiscoveRx (acquired by Eurobond) and BioImagene (acquired by Roche). He is Gold Medalist from Gujarat University, India, with a bachelor’s degree in Engineering. He received his Master’s in Engineering from Stanford, and an MBA in Finance from CSUEB.

Gain Added Exposure at RESI Europe by Applying to the Innovation Challenge

14 Feb

By Jessica Yang, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

Life Science Nation invites all early stage life science/healthcare companies to apply to the RESI Europe Innovation Challenge to showcase their technologies at our upcoming RESI partnering event in Vienna! Companies can apply to the Innovation Challenge free of charge. Once the applications close (the deadline is February 20th!), the LSN scientific review team selects the top 30 to compete. Innovation Challenge Finalists present a poster in the exhibition hall during RESI, as well as receiving additional exposure in the printed program guide and the LSN newsletter. All attendees receive ‘RESI cash’ which they can ‘invest’ in their favorite companies – the top three companies will receive prizes during the cocktail hour and will be announced to LSN’s worldwide following!

Here are some features of Innovation Challenge:

  • Finalists will be highlighted in multiple media outlets:
    • Announcement in weekly LSN Newsletter with readership of 20,000+
    • Featured on RESI Conference website
    • Featured in printed and online RESI Vienna program guide
  • Finalists will present a poster of their technology at the conference
  • All conference attendees will have the chance to “invest” RESI Cash in their favorite technologies
  • Top 3 winners will be announced during the cocktail reception and receive prizes/ RESI tickets to future RESI Conferences
  • It is FREE to apply!

Companies can apply through the online portal, with supplementary materials sent to RESI@lifesciencenation.com. The submission deadline is February 20th, 2019.

Also check out to see how to be successful in the RESI Innovation Challenge: https://blog.lifesciencenation.com/2018/09/20/how-to-be-successful-in-the-resi-innovation-challenge/

Here is a testimonial from the 1st place in the Innovation Challenge at last RESI Conference: https://blog.lifesciencenation.com/2019/01/31/interview-with-novotalk-1st-place-in-the-innovation-challenge/

The inaugural RESI Europe conference will occur in Vienna on March 25th at the Vienna Marriott Hotel, and we are excited to receive your Innovation Challenge application!

Life Science Investors Converge on RESI Europe: Meet the Early Stage Therapeutics Panelists

14 Feb

By Lucy Parkinson, VP of Investor Research, LSN

LSN’s one overriding message is that entrepreneurs need to look globally for capital. That’s the ethos that guides RESI, and our Investor Research team maintain a network of investors based all over the world that regularly attend our RESI partnering events to meet with emerging CEOs. RESI’s first ever event in Europe is already attracting a high level of investor interest – Click here to see some of the firms that are confirmed to attend RESI Europe to look for early stage opportunities. Due to RESI’s laser focus on investment, there’s no more efficient way to connect with global capital – entrepreneurs can book up to 16 investor meetings in one day, and RESI’s unique partnering system helps get their messages to the most relevant investors in their space.

In addition to meetings, RESI provides two tracks of investor panels that help entrepreneurs understand how life science investors think, what they’re looking for, and what makes a deal go or no-go for them. RESI’s Early Stage Therapeutics panel will cover all these issues and more for biotech entrepreneurs. The participants are:

Sara Secall (Investment Director, Inveready Asset Management)

Sara is responsible for building the Biotech Portfolio. She led the negotiation of ZIP Solutions license to a world top-3 bioprocessing company based in Germany which led to ZIP Solutions’ sale to Bionaturis. She sits at the board of Agrasys, Avizorex, BDI, Innoup Pharma, Leukos, Oncostellae, VLP and is a Board Observer at Edesa Biotech. She worked for Chevron Technology Ventures, the corporate Venture Capital group based in California with USD 210 MM under management. As Director of Spin Outs for the University of Barcelona, she was involved in starting and financing over 25 technology start ups and she negotiated numerous technology licenses. She has worked extensively in the USA, Latin America and Europe. Sara holds a BS in Chemistry, MSc from Indiana University and an MBA from the London Business School.

Marco Boorsma (Partner, Forbion)

Marco is Partner at Forbion Capital Partners and joined the firm in 2007. He has a background in molecular biology and biotechnology and brings operational and business development experience from both small and large businesses. Before joining Forbion Marco was Business Development Director and project manager at DSM Pharmaceutical Products and scientist at Cytos Biotechnology in Switzerland. He serves on the Board of Directors of Inflazome, NorthSea Therapeutics, Milestone Pharmaceuticals, Escalier Biosciences, RSPR Pharma, and Engene. After obtaining a master’s degree in molecular biology from the University of Groningen, Marco received his PhD in biotechnology from the ETH Institute for Technology in Zürich, and completed part of his research at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, UK.

Harvey Gross (Partner, Apollo Ventures)

Harvey is a Partner at Apollo Ventures, a life science venture capital firm and life science company builder working across Europe and North America. At Apollo, Harvey is working on the meaningful and future focused topic of health and biomedicine to make a difference. At Apollo, Harvey combines his entrepreneurial spirit and enthusiasm for finance to assess business opportunities and assist portfolio companies with strategy and venture development. Before joining Apollo, Harvey worked at the investment bank Lazard, where he conducted M&A activities on both buy and sell side mandates. He was also one of the first employees at the FinTech startup N26, where he was responsible for talent acquisition and setting up the customer support function. During his studies he co-founded his first NGO and has launched two other tech startups. Harvey holds a degree in International Business with a major in Finance from Maastricht University.

Martin Pfister (Senior Investment Manager: Life Sciences, High-Tech Gründerfonds)

Dr. Martin Pfister joined the High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) Medtech/LifeSciences team in Bonn in 2010. HTGF is the largest Seedfonds in Europe with about 900 Mio EUR under management and an active portfolio of about 260 technology-based portfolio companies, about 95 of which are in life sciences.

 

  • studied a combination of Medicine and Pharmacy in Germany and New York University, Medical School with a PhD in Immunology
  • Started his career in the hospital/laboratory
  • moved to the start-up life sciences world 18 years ago.
  • co-founded two companies in the molecular Dx field (VC backed, Exit) and healthcare services (privately owned, Exit 2018)
  • @ HTGF manages a portfolio of 13 life science companies including Biotech, Medtech and digital health
  • holds board member seat in 4 companies including clinical stage Biotech

Roel Bulthuis (Managing Director, INKEF Capital)

Roel Bulthuis is a Managing Director and head of the Healthcare investment team at INKEF Capital. Roel combines close to 20 years of experience across venture capital, pharma business development and M&A and healthcare investment banking. Prior to joining INKEF he served as SVP and Managing Director of M-Ventures which he created and developed into a leading CVC fund. Prior to that, he served in senior positions in global business development and M&A at Merck Serono and in the healthcare investment banking team at Fortis Bank. Roel is a Kauffman Fellow and passionate about continuously challenging the status quo. Roel holds a Msc. in Biopharmaceutical Sciences from Leiden University and an MBA in Finance from the Helsinki School of Economics.

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