Toronto Health Innovation Week – 2018

By Gregory Mannix, Vice President International Business Development, LSN

Where Health Means Business
For the second year running, RESI on MaRS will be the centerpiece event of the Toronto Health Innovation Week, taking place from April 9th to 13th, 2018. 30+ events will be taking place that week in the Toronto Region, bringing together key players in the life sciences from Canada and around the globe. Life science entrepreneurs, investors, opinion leaders and many others will converge on the region for an intense week of partnering and discussions. Here are some of the highlights:

Impact Health Summit. April 9th (All day)
Industry leaders and stakeholders from Canada and the world come together to build new partnerships and accelerate the ecosystem. The day will include keynotes and panels from industry leaders, roundtables, workshops and the Health Partnering Forum.

HealthKick Investor Summit. April 9th (Afternoon)
An inside look at the emerging trends, opportunities and challenges shaping the investment climate for human health and life sciences. Gain insight into the state of financing in healthcare today and the industry developments driving investments.

RESI on MaRS. April 10th (All day)
350+ global investors and strategics will meet 350+ early-stage life science companies and quality service providers in the industry’s premier partnering event for funding.

Also Offering Premier Partnering Plus

For more information: https://www.healthinnovationweek.ca/

Hot Investor Mandate 1: Canada-Based Family Office Interested in Early-Stage Medtech and Healthcare IT, Including AI/Big Data Applications

A multi-family office based in Canada has historically focused on the mining, oil and gas industries, but is beginning to become more involved with direct investments in the early stage healthcare space. Initial investments can range from $500k – $5M, but has a large network of family offices that they may syndicate with on larger deals. The group is flexible in terms of financing structures, and is open to straight equity in priced financing rounds as well as convertible notes, depending on the stage and specifics of the deal. The group has the capability to lead, but has no preference and will also co-invest as a syndicate, and is focused on companies in the U.S. and Canada.

The group is fairly new to the healthcare space and is primarily focused on the medtech and healthcare IT sectors, and is open to a variety of technologies/companies in these areas. The group has a specific interest in AI/big data applications in healthcare, and the primary screening criteria for all prospective companies being that the company have a very scalable business model. Further, the group looks for companies that have exhibited some sort of traction or customer support. In the medtech space, the group will look at medical devices pre-FDA approval on a secondary basis.

The group invests in companies in North America, but has no strict requirements for companies or management teams. The group does not require a board seat along with an investment.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.

Hot Investor Mandate 2: Single Family Office Seeks Emerging, Pre-Clinical Life Science Technologies with Strong Interests in Ophthalmology and Dermatology

A single-family office organization based in California is generally looking to make Seed and Series A investments in emerging life science companies. The firm can make investments ranging for $100,000 to $2 million and is currently interested in companies based throughout the US.

The firm is looking for companies in sectors of therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices. The firm is generally open to all indications but has increased interests in ophthalmology and dermatology. The firm is focused on pre-clinical stage companies and is comfortable working with early university spinouts.

The firm is looking for privately held companies. The firm is open to working with firms that have incomplete management teams and has experience in helping form a team around an idea. The firm also has relationships with a CRO and can offer additional strategic value in addition to capital.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.

Hot Investor Mandate 3: Boston-Based VC Firm Invests in Medtech and Diagnostic Companies Targeting Global Unmet Medical Needs

A Boston-based venture firm specializes in early stage opportunities in med-tech, diagnostics, and instruments. Currently, the firm has a total AUM of $125 million. Typically, the firm initially invests in a start-up at the early stage, but reserves capital for participation later on. The firm typically makes a first investment in the range of $1-3 million, but is open to making larger or smaller allocations as opportunities arise. The firm expects to invest a total in the range of $7-12 million in a given portfolio company as it makes progress toward a successful exit. The firm prefers to act as a lead investor for early stage deals.

The firm is most interested in companies developing Medical devices, Diagnostics tools and Instrumentation. The firm is looking for companies targeting global unmet clinical needs in areas such as oncology, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and women’s health. The firm is willing to invest in companies that are pre-prototype as well as those that have a working prototype of their product.

The firm looks to act as a long term strategic partner with its portfolio companies. The firm looks for experienced management teams and generally looks to take a board seat into companies.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.

Hot Investor Mandate 4: Non-Profit Foundation Provides Funding and Equity Investments to Early-Stage Ultrasound Technologies

A non-profit foundation is dedicated to accelerating the adoption of focused ultrasound to be used with therapeutic treatments. The foundation provides funding in the form of non-dilutive research grants as well as equity investments within early stage technologies that utilize focused ultrasound within their therapies. Examples include the use of focused ultrasound as a drug delivery mechanism. The foundation invests globally and focuses can invest anywhere between $100 thousand USD and a couple million to get early stage focused ultrasound using therapeutics to the proof of concept stage. The foundation invests globally.

The foundation is interested in technologies that utilize focused ultrasound and can aid in the adoption of this technology as a standard in the therapeutics world. This includes the use of focused ultrasound as a drug delivery mechanism, as part of a therapy (non-invasive thermal ablation), etc. Within these sectors, the firm is particularly interested in neurological indications, cancer indications, immunotherapies, and pediatric indications. The firm currently focuses on pre-clinical and phase I assets, but is also willing to invest in phase II assets that are nearing a significant milestone.

The foundation is looking for a team that is capable of taking the technology to a proof of concept stage as their main goal while investing is to accelerate the adoption of ultrasound for use in therapeutics.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.

RESI San Francisco Innovation Challenge – Check Out the Winners

By Nono Hu, Director of Marketing, LSN

RESI San Francisco 2018 was the biggest Redefining Early Stage Investments event yet. In a highly competitive RESI Innovation Challenge we saw novel technologies represented from the therapeutics, medtech, diagnostics, and healthcare IT verticals – we know it was tough for RESI attendees to choose how to allocate their 5 RESI “investment” tokens! We wish all our finalists the best in bringing their products forward toward commercialization, but there could only be 3 top prize winners.

First Place: CorInnova

With a $6 million lead investment from the UK-based Wellcome Trust ($26 billion in assets), CorInnova is developing an innovative minimally invasive cardiac assist device to treat heart failure. The collapsible soft robotic direct cardiac compression device, deployed minimally invasively into the pericardial space around the heart, does not touch the blood. The device should reduce hospital length of stay from 30 to 4 days and adverse events vs. LVADS by 40%. It will expand the eligible patient population 3 to 4X to an addressable market of up to $14 billion. CorInnova has a world-class team. First-in-human trials are anticipated to begin in 18 months. Three similar cardiac companies with only 10 patients’ data sold for $250 to $400 million in cash.

Boris Leschinsky, Vice President of Product Development,CorInnova | Dennis Ford, CEO, Life Science Nation | William Altman, CEO, CorInnova | Keith Svagerko, Vice President, Business Development, CorInnova

 

Second Place: ImmunoBiochem Corporation

ImmunoBiochem is a privately held biopharmaceutical company solving the problem of tumor heterogeneity by targeting unique proteins enriched in the secretomes of cancer cells with Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs) – a promising class of biological anticancer therapeutics. ImmunoBiochem has identified a class of molecular targets that are secreted by cancer cells, but not healthy cells, and possess unique properties enabling the highly-selective delivery of toxic payloads to cancer cells, while leaving normal cells unharmed. ImmunoBiochem’s next-generation biologics aim to offer a superior safety profile and broad therapeutic window. Lead candidate, IMB-212, is aimed at a well-characterized cancer biomarker supported by a wealth of clinical data, and is being developed for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) – an aggressive disease for which no targeted biologics treatment options are available.

Dennis Ford, CEO, Life Science Nation | Anton Neschadim, CEO, ImmunoBiochem | Lucy Parkinson, Director of Investor Research, LSN

 

Third Place: Biorez

Biorez is an early-stage regenerative medicine company developing a bioresorbable scaffold for ACL reconstruction. Despite over 400,000 procedures each year, current surgical options are limited to autograft tissue, which requires a patient to sacrifice their own tendon, or allograft tissue, which is harvested from cadavers and has a higher failure rate. There is a large, unmet clinical need for a consistent, off-the-shelf device for ligament regeneration. The Biorez device provides the necessary strength to support physical activity, while its highly porous, proprietary structure facilitates a patient’s own cells to follow the scaffold and regenerate new functional tissue. The company is supported by early-stage VC investors, world-class scientific advisors, and a dedicated team to commercialize this exciting technology.

Dennis Ford, CEO, Life Science Nation | Kevin Rocco, CEO, Biorez | Lucy Parkinson, Director of Investor Research, LSN

Thank you to all who competed in the RESI JPM Innovation Challenge, and to all the RESI attendees who took part by investing their votes in their favorite competing companies. Welcome to join our upcoming RESI on MaRS event on April 10th, register now.

Are You Ready For RESI JPM? Time To Check Out The Program Guide

By Nono Hu, Director of Marketing, LSN

JPM week is almost upon us, and at Life Science Nation, we’re making the final preparations for RESI San Francisco. It’s our largest event of the year; if you want to join over a thousand life science executives and investors for targeted one-on-one meetings, you’ve got 5 more days to sign up. In the meantime, please check out the RESI Program Guide below to see all our RESI Innovators, sponsors, exhibitors and speakers. With attendees from all over the world coming to RESI to make new connections and continue compelling dialogues, RESI San Francisco is the most focused event next week for early stage companies and investors. We’ll look forward to seeing you all face to face next week.