In this interview, Patrik Frei explains how biotech CEOs can use Biotechgate to identify potential licensing partners, assess competing programs, and benchmark relevant transactions. He also discusses how Venture Valuation can help turn that research into a licensing strategy and potential deal terms. 

Patrik Frei Founder and CEO at Venture Valuation AG

Caitlin Dolegowski Program Director, LSN

Caitlin Dolegowski (CD): Let’s start with the asset. If I’m the CEO and want to license it to pharma, what do you need to know before you start looking for potential partners? 

Patrik Frei (PF): Who the ideal partner would be. It is not always big pharma. Mid-size and specialty companies are often the better fit.

• When the right time to out-license is. That moment can differ from partner to partner, depending on the data each one needs to see before engaging.

• How much time you have. Building the relationship takes months or years, not weeks. An out-licensing deal cannot be expected within one or two months.

• What makes your asset different. You need a clear, evidence-based answer on why it is better than the programs already on a partner’s desk.

CD: Who should I approach? Show us how you would use Biotechgate to find pharma companies with a plausible fit based on their pipelines, therapeutic interests, geography, and previous licensing activity. Does the platform generate an initial target list from my asset description, or do I construct it through searches and filters? 

PF: In Biotechgate, you can see what pharma companies are actively looking to in-license. This is based on what they communicate at conferences, in presentations, and on their websites. It is classified by our analysts rather than guessed by an algorithm.

You add the stage, indication and, if relevant, the geography for out-licensing, and you get a target list of potential partners actively looking for that type of program. You build the list yourself through searches and filters, which keeps you in control of the criteria—and it takes minutes, not weeks. You can also set up an alert that tells you as soon as a new potential partner appears. And you can enter your search criteria in natural language using our AI-based workflow, which lets you run complex queries in plain words.

CD: How much of the market have we found? For this example, how many companies appear initially and how many remain after you assess fit? What portion of the credible global partner universe would you expect Biotechgate to capture, and where might important gaps remain? 

PF: As we work with over 30 local partners around the world—from Ausbiotech, BioTaiwan, HollandBIO, UKBio, Maryland, BioFlorida to Ohio Life Sciences and many more—we capture a substantial share of the credible global partner universe. In an example like this one, a search typically starts with several hundred companies and narrows to a shortlist of 20 to 40 once stage, indication, and in-licensing intent are applied. The key is that our data are structured. This is not a general AI or web search. The list only includes companies that our analysts have classified as actively seeking assets, or that have declared this themselves.

We also have a Chinese-speaking analyst covering that increasingly important market. If I had to point to where our coverage is relatively thinner, I would say Africa, South America and, to a lesser extent, Japan.

CD: Can I reach the right people? What names, responsibilities, email addresses, and phone numbers are available for those companies? Can I download the target list and contacts into my CRM? How do I verify that a person is current and handles licensing opportunities like mine? 

PF: We have invested a great deal of effort in collecting the relevant contacts in each company: name, role, and responsibility. For big pharma, we identify the business development person responsible for the specific indication or stage, and provide email and LinkedIn details. Our analysts review and update these records on an ongoing basis, and LinkedIn gives you a second, independent check that a person is still in the role.

All information can be searched, refined, and downloaded in Excel format. From there, it can be imported into any CRM or used in whatever format suits your workflow. We also provide an API that gives you direct access to the data.

Within a company, many people are usually involved. The key is to find a champion who is genuinely interested in your asset. That person will bring the right colleagues on board. Biotechgate gives you the best chance of identifying that entry point. It is just as important to meet people face to face at conferences such as RESI. Biotechgate provides the verified intelligence to identify that exact champion, and pairing that targeted research with direct, face-to-face partnering at focused conferences like RESI creates the highest-converting path from cold lead to executed term sheet.

CD: What is my global competition? How would you find similar assets and examine their owners, stage, clinical activity, and licensing status? What makes another program a genuine alternative for a potential pharma partner? 

PF: Biotechgate has a very intuitive interface. All data are attached to a company, and you can search by company, asset, financing round, licensing deal, clinical trial, and more. To identify similar assets, the best route is to search by asset and select the stage, indication, and sub-indication. This gives you a list of similar assets, their companies, the management of those companies, and their investors.

Another key differentiator is how Biotechgate combines curated, structured data with AI. Many so-called “AI companies” rely primarily on unstructured documents and let a language model extract answers from them. That works well for summarizing text, but it struggles with questions that require completeness and precision, such as, “Which oncology licensing deals above USD 100 million were signed in Europe in the last three years?” Answering that reliably requires data that has been verified, standardized, and linked. At Biotechgate, structured data is the source of truth, and AI is the layer that makes it fast and intuitive to explore.

Pharma is looking for first-in-class or best-in-class. A competing program becomes a genuine alternative when it addresses the same indication with a comparable or better profile and sits at a similar or more advanced stage. That is why every biotech has to understand its competitive landscape before approaching partners. It is also crucial to understand what licensing deals a potential partner has already done and on what terms.

CD: Where does my asset stand? Can Biotechgate show the evidence needed to compare my program with those alternatives? Does it generate a rank or assessment, or must the CEO and advisers judge relative position from the data? 

PF: Biotechgate provides the evidence—stage, clinical trials, indication and sub-indication, primary market, originator, administration mode, and molecule type—but it does not score or rank the result. We deliberately leave the judgment to the CEO and their advisers. If an independent view is needed, Venture Valuation can assess the relative position of the asset. A score would hide the assumptions behind it. Partners will challenge your reasoning, not your rating, so the underlying evidence has to hold up.

CD: What happened to similar assets? How would you find relevant pharma licensing agreements and venture financings? Which terms and financial details are available, which are usually undisclosed, and how do you avoid treating an announced deal’s maximum value as cash received? 

PF: Starting from the asset, you can see immediately which licensing deals and agreements have been signed for comparable programs. For some deals, you can even access the actual contract that was signed as a PDF download, and you can trace the financing rounds and investors that have backed companies with equivalent assets.

Biotechgate has over 40,000 licensing deals, over 10,000 deal values, and over 1,700 actual licensing agreements. Additional information includes upfront payments, regulatory and commercial milestones, equity investments, and royalties. Royalty rates and the detailed milestone schedule are the terms most often left undisclosed.

Because we separate the individual components of a deal—in particular, the upfront from the milestones—Biotechgate shows the difference between the headline deal value and the cash actually received at signing. That stops anyone from mistaking an announced biodollar total for money in the bank.

CD: What might my asset and a deal be worth? What does Venture Valuation’s independent analysis add to the database research? How would you test development risk, market assumptions, and different combinations of upfront cash, milestones, and royalties—including the effect of reaching the next development milestone before licensing? 

PF: Biotechgate gives you solid benchmarks for comparable transactions. On top of that, Venture Valuation provides an individual calculation of potential licensing deal terms. Based on the specific asset, time to market, development risk, market size, and uniqueness, we model front-loaded or back-loaded structures. We can also show what the same asset would be worth after the next development milestone, so you can decide whether to license now or wait.

Without that work, it is hard to know how to set upfront payments, milestones, and royalties once negotiations start. Pharma typically wants to know a biotech’s ballpark figures early on, so you have to be prepared.

CD: What do I take into a licensing campaign? At the end of our example, describe the target list, contact information, competitive landscape, transaction comparisons, and valuation analysis the CEO could have in hand. Which pieces are available through a Biotechgate subscription, which require your team’s services, and how should a CEO get started? 

PF: A biotech CEO ends up with the full package: a qualified target list, named contacts with email and LinkedIn details, the competitive landscape, and comparable transactions—all available through a Biotechgate subscription—plus a tailor-made asset valuation with concrete deal term proposals, which is where our Venture Valuation team comes in.

The best way to start is a short call with us and a trial of the database, so you can run your own asset through it. Biotechgate is the deal-making tool every CEO needs.

The practical test is to bring a real asset to Patrik’s team and see what the research produces: a potential partner universe, available contacts, competing programs, and relevant transactions. From there, a CEO can decide whether an independent valuation would help shape the licensing discussion. That work can provide the foundation for a global partnering campaign. Readers who want to explore what Biotechgate and Venture Valuation can deliver for their asset can contact Patrik’s team at https://www.biotechgate.com/.