An interview with Dr. Jean Yao, Managing Partner, Med Qiao Group – By Jessica Yang, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

An increasing number of Chinese investors are looking for companies around the globe with a China angle and changing the dynamics of life science innovations. Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Jean Yao, Managing Partner at Med Qiao Group, about her experience sourcing investment opportunities through RESI in the past two years. Jean has attended nearly every RESI event since 2016.

Jessica: To begin with, please tell us a little bit about your background?

Jean: I am the founder of Med Qiao Group, and I have been active within the Medtech/Diagnostics/Digital Health technology community for over twenty years as a venture capitalist, consultant, and technologist.  I’ve also been working with startups, institutional and strategic VCs to help them expand the market in China.

Jessica: You’ve been to almost every RESI since you first attended in January 2016. In your opinion, what are the greatest strengths of RESI?

Jean: RESI organizes five different conferences every year in various cities such as San Francisco, Boston, and New York. As an investor open to technology with broad interests of life sciences and healthcare, RESI plays a critical role that enables investors to source more deals. Also, one thing I enjoy in RESI is that you can discover different kinds of biotech/medtech ecosystems in different cities, and in RESI you’ll find new companies every time with high quality.

Jessica: What successes have you experienced through RESI?

Jean: I have invested in a cancer diagnostics company that I met in RESI. Overall, I can see that there are more and more investors and companies who are developing innovative technologies coming to RESI, which makes RESI a valuable partnering conference since RESI helps to connect the dots in the life science space. Also, I always recommended my portfolio companies to attend RESI to gain more exposure to other investors and potential strategic partners.

Jessica: How do you see the value that RESI provides to cross-border investors like you?

Jean: The investment market is tremendous in China since Asia and the US are currently the biggest healthcare markets in the world. RESI helps cross-border investors have a chance to source more US deals, and also the one-on-one partnering meeting system makes it more efficient for investors to filter the companies before the conference, and people can find the mutual fits through browsing the online partnering platform.

About Med Qiao: Med Qiao Group is a healthcare market investor as well as a unique medical-business strategic consulting firm dedicated to bridging between East and West healthcare worlds. Med Qiao has offices based in Minneapolis and Shanghai, China. Alongside investments, the firm advises life science companies on strategic partnerships (manufacturers, distributors) in the Asian market by providing resources in the network.

By Karen Deyo, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

The inaugural First Coast Innovator’s Gathering proved to be a big success at our September RESI, both for investors looking for the earliest stage companies and tech hubs wanting to gain exposure for their programs and constituents. Due to the positive reception, we are again featuring regional tech hubs at our upcoming RESI in NYC on November 5^th. RESI NYC will feature tech hubs from New York and the surrounding states, including CT, RI, NJ and PA, bringing their constituents and displaying their technologies. In addition, tech hub constituents can apply to the Pitch Challenge for the chance to pitch to a panel of investors. Applications from the members of registered tech hubs will be accepted through Monday, October 15^th, so don’t miss out on your chance!

By Lucy Parkinson, VP of Investor Research, LSN

It’s almost time to open RESI Partnering for the upcoming New York event on November 5th.  Hundreds of investors gathering to participate in RESI, and Partnering will run all day, providing entrepreneurs with up to 16 face to face meetings.

RESI’s unique partnering system includes detailed profiles sourced from investor interviews by LSN’s Investor Research team, and with this information attendees can direct their outreach to the attending investors who are the best fit for their technology, stage of development, and other relevant factors.  With this basis in fit, entrepreneurs can make relevant new connections at RESI and start dialogues with investors who could help take their product to the next stage.

Here’s a sampling of who you could meet in New York on November 5th.  We hope to see you again there.

Confirmed Investors & Strategic Partners

As of October 4th, 2018

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

LSN has studied the breakdown of investor participants in Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) conferences over the course of the last year, and we found over 1000 North America-based investors, over 250 Asia-based investors and over 150 Europe-based investors, most of whom attended more than one RESI event. The fundraising CEOs who seek out these investors come to RESI in similar numbers, making the investor-to-entrepreneur ratio at all RESI conferences about one to one, unheard of for a partnering conference.  The RESI conference, due to its focus on early stage life science technologies, provides a present view of how the market is changing by bringing together the players on both side of the table – the early–stage buyers (investors and partners) and the early–stage sellers (scientist-entrepreneurs). As we all know, the healthcare arena and landscape is under dramatic change, with an enormous number new products and services that will become integrated into the healthcare industry.

When we look at these new products that entrepreneurs are showcasing at RESI, we see that they run the gamut from iterative (100 million + in market potential), to breakthrough (one billion +) to transformative (one trillion +).  The LSN Company Platform additionally collates information on tens of thousands of life science companies around the world.  As an example, we used the Company Platform to search for companies with products for surgery, and this is what we found:

This search was performed using the metrics the industry currently uses to define in which sector a company belongs. However, it is becoming extremely hard to classify these companies into discrete silos, as many of these technologies can be included in multiple categories. The industry will have to adapt as the boundaries between sectors become more and more tenuous. 

The lines are blurring all over the healthcare arena. Drugs will be inside intelligent devices connecting to networks of intelligent micro sensors outside and inside the body feeding data to the cloud apps and reporting and adjusting in and out of mobile devices, changing the way patients will cope with debilitating diseases.  Recent technological advancements are changing the face of medical care, including in the OR and pre- and post-op environments. The advent of digital health is leading to better patient monitoring systems, preventing potentially deadly outcomes while reducing the burden on hospital staff.  In addition, medical devices are becoming smaller and smarter, taking advantage of the ability to interface with devices outside the body to monitor improvements and alter treatment plans to increase efficacy.

While these advances are exciting, they do come with many challenges. The lines between therapeutics, diagnostics, devices and digital health are intersecting, and it is now common for products to touch multiple silos. This also increases the difficulties in gaining approval from regulatory agencies, as the evaluation is no longer so clear cut due to the overlap. However, regardless of the challenges, new technologies will come that improve patient outcomes, reduce complications and allow us to perform surgeries that were previously considered impossible.

Many of the investors who share their mandate information with LSN have expressed an interest in areas of convergence between the traditional technology silos in life sciences; investors express interest in digital therapeutics, tech-enabled medical devices and health services, and personalized medicine technologies that encompass elements of both diagnostic and therapeutic breakthroughs.

In RESI and the LSN data platforms, LSN essentially has a crystal ball looking into the future of healthcare!