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.
Once you have a global target list of investors as we outlined in last week’s chapter, you will want to begin going outbound and contacting these groups. With this week’s edition of the summer reading series, we explain what goes into an effective phone canvassing campaign.
“Chapter 10: Phone Canvassing” goes through the process of reaching out to potential investors effectively via the phone. Now the idea of contacting investors, or anyone for that matter, via a cold call may sound daunting to many fundraising entrepreneurs; however, in the highly competitive marketplace for early stage investment, entrepreneurs should use this and all professional tactics available to them in order to separate from the crowd and garner more attention from potential investors.
It is no secret that 2015 has been a highly active year for deal-making in the life science space. However, what is often overlooked is exactly where in the space those deals are taking place. Life Science Nation’s financing rounds database contains detailed information on over 250 of these rounds that have taken place since January 1 of 2015. We track this data from a variety of sources however as many companies and investors chose not to disclose this information this should be viewed as a sample of the entire data set of financings. With this article will highlight what our data tells us about the rounds that have taken place thus far in 2015 for therapeutics companies around the globe.
The first cut worth examining is the types of technologies that received funding.
Figure 1 | Source: LSN Financing Rounds Dataset | Data as of July 22, 2015
As this chart represents the funding of all stages of development, it should again come as no surprise that small molecules are the most popular technology type receiving funding. Things get more interesting when we take a deeper look here at the types of technologies in the preclinical and Phase I of development that received funding.
Figure 2 | Source: LSN Financing Rounds Dataset | Data as of July 22, 2015
While small molecules are still receiving the highest number of individual financings, in the early stage (preclinical and Phase I) they are ahead by a significantly smaller margin. Also, at this early stage we see gene therapy taking the number two spot, receiving 33% more financial rounds than antibodies. These companies include those working toward single gene mutation orphan diseases whose expedited regulatory approval process attracts investors, as well as those utilizing recent advancements in gene therapy to develop novel treatments for various cancers, diseases of the eye, and HIV/AIDS.
Another interesting perspective on the financing rounds data comes from looking the indication areas that received investments. (As many companies target multiple indications, a significant number of the rounds that are tracked count toward more than one indication.)
Figure 3 | Source: LSN Financing Rounds Dataset | Data as of July 22, 2015
This chart should come as no surprise to anyone who has been in the industry for the past few years. Oncology is the clear leader, securing the largest number of individual financing rounds, followed by diseases of the nervous system fueled by a number of investments in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, and ALS. Endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases take the third spot, driven by a high level of investor interest in the expedited regulatory pathways for the numerous orphan indications that fall into this category, paired with the massive and growing market opportunity represented by diabetes.
A third angle that provides interesting insight into therapeutic financing rounds for 2015 is looking at the phase of development of the lead asset for companies that have received financing.
Figure 4 | Source: LSN Financing Rounds Dataset | Data as of July 22, 2015
At first glance this seems like a great sign for preclinical stage companies, which thus far in 2015 have been able to secure the second highest number of financings. Now while this is definitely an indicator of investor interest in the early stages of product development, a few things must be considered to understand fully the current competitive landscape. First, there are significantly more companies competing for those preclinical financing rounds than those looking for financing for Phase II assets. In our company platform, we have identified north of 650 companies with a lead asset in Phase II and nearly twice that number with lead assets in the preclinical stage. It should be noted that preclinical companies are often low profile entities and are difficult to track, so these figures do not reflect 100% of companies developing a preclinical lead asset. The key takeaway here is that investors are indeed making allocations to preclinical stage companies and at a significant pace; however, the competition for those dollars remains high.
2015 has been a banner year for therapeutics investment so far, and we are excited to see what the rest of the year will bring. Based on the conversations we’ve had with over 800 investors in the space, we see no signs of a slowdown in deals getting made. If you are out there fundraising, competition is tough without question, but money is moving and it is largely a matter of finding the right investors at the right time.
By Nono Hu, Senior Manager, Branding & Messaging, LSN
On June 8, 2015, the Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference came to Texas Medical Center (TMC), the largest medical complex in the world. In order to fill in those that missed out, LSN has released a recap video which captures the happenings and buzz at TMC’s 100,000+ ft² accelerator space.
More than 300 fundraising life science executives and over 120 early stage investors booked RESI Partnering meetings to capacity. 21 panels and workshops provided firsthand knowhow regarding the early stage life science investment landscape. LSN would like to thank you for joining us at RESI @ TMCx – you made the event a huge success, and we look forward to seeing you again at RESI Boston on September 16th 2015.
Last week, we provided an overview of the infrastructure required to execute an outbound campaign. This week, we take a deeper look at how to build your target list of investors.
Chapter 9: “Global Target List—Match Your Firm with Investors That Are a Fit” explains the importance of finding alignment between your life science company and an investor’s interests. Here we outline how to use information on past financing rounds to uncover potential investors, and how to screen these leads to find active investors that may be interested in your company’s technology. Finally, we’ll anatomize an investment mandate, and examine the factors that determine fit, including your location, the type of product you’re developing, and the stage of development your asset has reached.
The Large Pharma Panel at RESI is always one of the most popular and RESI@TMCx was no exception. This panel featuring representatives from Johnson and Johnson, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Takeda Ventures, and Sanofi discusses the specific areas where these groups are looking to make allocations and how companies should go about getting on their radar. Other topics addressed include why big pharma is looking early stage and how big pharma looks to partner with big medtech and foundations/venture philanthropy groups to move science forward.
To hear firsthand big pharma’s opinion on these topics, watch this RESI video recap.
For those that have been following the summer series thus far, you now have a firm hold on the legal landscape for fundraising as well as the importance of and what constitutes a strong set of marketing materials. In order to organize your outreach and keep track of whom you are sending those materials to, we have found that the proper utilization of cloud infrastructure is the best method to maximize your campaign’s efficiency.
Chapter 8 of The Life Science Executive’s Fundraising Manifesto, “Leveraging a Cloud Infrastructure to Manage an Outbound Campaign,” provides a framework for and describes the key functionality that makes some of today’s cloud infrastructure so valuable in any type of outbound campaign. From task management to content delivery and large-scale email campaigns with metrics and tracking, this chapter provides an in-depth look at the value these cloud based products can provide.
Next week we introduce Chapter 9: “Global Target List—Match Your Firm with Investors That Are a Fit,” where the importance of having a global list of relevant investors and the process of creating this list will be discussed.
By Nono Hu, Senior Manager, Branding & Messaging, LSN
Life Science Nation (LSN) will be hosting the Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) conference in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS (JLABS) on September 16th in Boston. JLABS will be hosting a cocktail reception to wrap up the event.
“The JLABS event will provide a great venue for scientist-entrepreneurs and investors to get some additional networking time,” said Dennis Ford, CEO, LSN.
Senior representatives from JLABS also will be participating in RESI’s panels and workshops as well as the RESI investor partnering forum.
“JLABS has a close relationship with Boston and the Cambridge life science communities and is dedicated to the early stage life science arena, so collaborating with Life Science Nation for this event makes a lot of sense,” said Chelsea Hewitt, Director of Marketing for JLABS.
The RESI conference series is all about providing fundraising CEOs with a venue to meet early stage investors that are a fit for their sector and stage, providing a great ROI for cost conscious CEO’s.
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