Monthly Archives: March 2013

This is not a traditional post but rather a link to a video of a fun panel that I moderated at BioEurope Spring in Barcelona in March, 2013. The discussion touched on several hot issues in funding innovation in life sciences, especially translational research.

Here’s the link: http://www.partnering360.com/insight/showroom/id/0_p9ec32p3

To help you find points of interest, I’m listing some approximate time stamps below.

PANEL DATE: March 11, 2013

PANEL DESCRIPTION

With the shortage of classical VC investing and the ongoing boom in early opportunities and strong entrepreneurs, traditional VC is beginning to share the spotlight with alternative models. For therapeutics companies that have already raised some capital or especially those that have products in the clinic, there are some new alternatives to choose from, including option deals, one-product financings from VCs, and pre-IPO royalty-based financing.

Moderator:
Steve Dickman – CEO, CBT Advisors

Panelists:

• Sinclair Dunlop – Managing Partner, Rock Spring Ventures
• Joël Jean-Mairet – General Partner, Ysios Capital
• Kevin Johnson – Partner, Index Ventures
• Melissa Stevens – Deputy Executive Director, FasterCures

CONTENTS

• 0:00 Panel intro (Steve Dickman)
• 3:19 FasterCures (Melissa Stevens), channeling non-dilutive foundation cash into therapy development
• 4:29 Index Ventures (Kevin Johnson) intro and description of pharma-backed fund
• 4:50 Rock Spring (Sinclair Dunlop) intro – UK VC
• 5:20 Ysios (Joel Jean-Mairet) intro – Spanish-European VC
• 7:25 What are the mechanics of asset-based financings? We’ve done 27 of them… (Johnson)
• 12:15 Ysios (Jean-Mairet) view on asset-based financing “experiment” in molecular diagnostics
• 14:00 Why Index would love to invest in diagnostics but can’t do it (Johnson)
• 18:30 How things are better in lean, asset-based companies (Johnson) “Working in a tinpot biotech is more fun” than in an old-fashioned fully integrated company.
• 19:55 How Rock Spring (Dunlop) does early-stage platforms & products
• 21:15 Refinancing risk has grown (Jean-Mairet)
• 22:45 How times have changed in LS VC (Jean-Mairet)
• 24:15 The key to avoiding “zombie” companies – suicide (Johnson)
• 25:40 More (interesting!) details on FasterCures and how foundations are changing the investing game (Stevens)
• 28:48 National MS Society’s “Fast Forward” venture-like group (Stevens)
• 30:55 CF Foundation and its Vertex and now Pfizer relationships (Stevens)
• 32:55 American Heart Association (AHA) learning more about venture philanthropy (Stevens)
• 36:15 Venture philanthropy in Europe (Dunlop)
• 46:15 Tech transfer report card (Dickman, panel)
• 57:00 How European & Israeli seed funds are trying to bridge the venture gap (panel)
• 1:04:00 How to ensure succession in biotech (Johnson, panel)
• 1:08:00 Why there are not more young entrepreneurs in life sciences (Johnson)
• 1:15:00 The Andrew Lo “Megafund”: will it fly (Stevens, panel)
• 1:18:00 Other debt models for supporting translational work (Jean-Mairet)
• 1:22:00 Cross-border seed-stage investing (Dickman)

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