all right so the next panel that we have
will discuss the right reasons and right
ways to approach strategics so the
speakers on this panel are from
Genentech J J Medtronic and Novartis and
they all focus on finding opportunities
and partners that will bring new
technologies to their companies so they
all do various types of deals investment
licensing Acquisitions and each of the
speakers is going to talk a little bit
more in depth about the types of Deals
they do and the particular spaces
they're interested in
but before we kick it over to the
panelists I wanted to introduce you to
our moderator Diego can you wave I had
the opportunity to work with Diego Ray
when he was a visiting partner at YC but
prior to working with us at YC Diego Ray
was the CTO and co-founder of the
clinical Diagnostics company Jean weave
which was acquired by Roche currently
Diego is the co-founder and CSO at
endpoint Health a Precision Immunology
company endpoint help help went through
YC in the winter 2019 batch okay
everyone welcome Diego Jennifer Rachel
Ahmet and Stacy
all right
thanks cat
so great to see everybody really
exciting to be at a YC bio event like
this it's the first one of its kind uh
and I'm hoping many more in person
especially so well we have a really
great panel here today uh we're going to
be talking about partnering with uh
larger larger biotech larger Pharma
companies larger Med device companies
and Diagnostics companies and uh you
know if you think back kind of uh the
importance of partnering for companies
like ours for those of you in the
audience uh you know they uh you know I
think we're all a big fan of one of the
original founder-led biotechs Genentech
and you know it really allowed them to
arrive to at some escape velocity was
their deal with Lily for example uh and
so they you know if you look back at
other examples of uh what's really
helped companies like ours in the
earliest stages get underway uh doing
deals partnering with with a
well-established companies is certainly
part of that so we're to talk a little
bit about that today so we'll start off
with some some intros for folks on the
panel so if if each each member in the
panel maybe we'll go down the line here
could introduce themselves uh the
specific sector that they're in the type
of company because we have folks here
across various sectors in life sciences
and along the way if you could Define
what the asset is when you're thinking
of partnering because we have
therapeutic assets Diagnostics Med
devices software tools maybe so from
your point of view so later when we go
through some of the questions folks can
keep that in in minus perspective of
where you're coming from and finally as
you introduce yourselves if you want to
give a shout out any notable deals that
you might be uh excited or proud about
that you can you can mention as well
I have to remember all that so hi I'm
Jen Leeds I'm heading search and
evaluation uh on for Novartis on the
west coast and in Canada and I support
translational medicine in uh in our
group which is the early clinical
Development Group as well as oncology so
my Geographic role is across all
therapeutic areas that we're interested
in all modalities and then I also have a
special interest in oncology and
translational medicine
um I've been with the company 20 years
16 of those in the Infectious Disease
area and heading antibacterial Discovery
so this is kind of a new area for me as
well what was the second part of the
your favorite deal
oh but I didn't tell you what our areas
of Interest are okay so
um four key areas of interest
um and our our CEO of us has recently uh
updated all of this so oncology
Immunology neuroscience and
cardiovascular are kind of the the key
top priorities for Novartis at this
point I'm in nyber which is the or
nibber depending on how you say it which
is the Discovery through early
Development Division of Novartis and so
our remit is a little bit broader than
that we cover a lot of other disease
areas because we're sort of 20 years you
know from uh from launch kind of of
thinking
um and we cover all all modalities so
actually the the deal that I am most I
think most proud of
um was an out licensing that I that I
did to a new code that we launched with
Atlas which just ipo'd so um third
harmonic bio so I was very excited that
to see that go and that was an asset
that we had in-house which was out of
strategy for us and so I was able to out
partner that so I also do a lot of out
licensing of off strategy assets from
from the neighbor organization that
aren't going to be fully developed by
Novartis
thank you perfect Rachel
Rachel Ray
um not the famous chef I am a senior
director of Business Development within
Medtronic I really support the surgical
Innovations business it's about a six
billion dollar business Legacy covidian
so I've been with covidia Medtronic for
about 11 years our Focus areas are more
on the surgery side of course with the
name surgical Innovations across all
approach all approaches so open lab
robotic we partner quite closely with
our operating unit the surgical robotics
operating unit as well so look at Key
Specialties within those areas bariatric
colorectal general surgery
thoracic GYN as well so very excited to
be here today my most notable deal I
would say is probably when I was really
just getting my my teeth into business
development I was put on a carve out
deal so carve out from a public company
we we actually acquired Smith and
nephews Gynecology business back in 2016
so that was the first time I really led
a deal and it was a great opportunity
for me to to really dig in but it also
started our view towards specialty Focus
areas where covidium was much more
product and Tool focused and Medtronic
is is much more specialty procedural
Focus as well so it started that whole
Viewpoint and starting going that
direction so the the business has been
great the team has been great and
um it was it was very exciting and I
still helped support our Gynecology
business as well
thank you Stacy hi everyone Stacy Feld
I'm Regional head of Johnson and Johnson
Innovation for West North America
Australia New Zealand Johnson and
Johnson operates across three main
business units Pharmaceuticals med tech
and for the next few months or so
consumer health as you may be aware we
announced at the end of last year that
we will be separating and spinning out
the consumer health business to be an
independent company
um Johnson and Johnson Innovation is a
global platform that focuses really on
the breadth of ways to engage with
external Partners really looking across
company formation seed and late stage
financing early partnering late Park
partnering we'll talk a little bit more
as we get into the dialogue we operate
across four regions as I said I lead our
West North America region and the idea
is to get to the table early with the
likes of all of you entrepreneurs
startups
academic researchers to build
relationships early on and to help shape
those relationships toward accelerating
Health Care Solutions to Market I'm
going to highlight a deal that my team
signed last year with a company that was
a member of our J Labs incubator in San
Diego they have a platform technology in
the antiviral drug conjugate space and
we partnered with them last year to
leverage that technology to develop Next
Generation
Um influenza therapies and I highlight
it because I think it's a really
important example of that long-term
relationship building getting to know a
company years literally years before a
partnership comes together building that
trust building that relationship helping
to shape the direction of in this case a
platform in some cases it's an asset and
enabling the right timing to come
together for a partnership like that
thanks Summit hello everyone
um good good to be here so uh I lead
business development for Genentech I
joined Genentech as an intern in 2005
still feels like yesterday it's been 17
years since then and over those 17 years
I have probably spent time in almost
every organization or function at
Genentech eight years ago I decided to
take on a role in Business Development
Group and uh currently oversee the group
and our team is responsible for
end-to-end business development so that
includes identifying the companies
screening them across the entire world
and then executing the Partnerships
whichever opportunities might be of
interest to us our interests are on the
therapeutic sites are focused on
immunology and infectious diseases
oncology Neuroscience of talmology and
rare diseases and we're also interested
in technology platforms that can help
accelerate or augment or drug Discovery
and development efforts and we have a
significant Focus now on personalized
Healthcare and digital which quite a few
companies these over here would fall
into that category
a deal that I would like to highlight
that I'm really proud of is
historically Genentech has always been
about follow the science and do whatever
it takes to advance medicine for
patients so about a couple of years ago
we decided we really wanted to do
something a lot more in Neuroscience it
is one of the hardest area to really
crack and requires a diversity of
approaches so we decided to bring all
the genetic scientists and clinicians
who work in neuroscience at Raj which is
the parent company of Genentech that
ended up acquiring it all the leading
academics and clinicians and scientists
at UCSF University of California
Berkeley and University of Washington
all under one umbrella to really do
science Without Borders and this is our
biggest Academy commitment and the work
on some of the deepest and and the and
the most challenging problems in
Neuroscience developing animal models
figuring out what is the best win the
best modalities to be able to apply so
of people like Jennifer doudna mikarape
Steve Hauser these big names are all a
part of part of this group so really
proud that we were able to do something
like that
awesome all right thank you everybody so
we'll go through a few questions and you
know feel free to chime in we don't not
everybody has to answer as we as we go
on uh and the first question I think is
uh you know start at the beginning is so
uh you mentioned uh Stacy mentioned uh
uh getting access to companies like the
folks here in the audience as early as
possible what when when is the right
time uh in terms of company stage or
stage of product development how early
do you want me to start sorry yeah
sure so yeah I guess with my earlier
comments as a backdrop that we do look
to build relationships early as well as
the fact that we have a breadth of
offerings from incubation to strategic
Investments to partnership
we don't think about the right time we
think about when's the right time for
the partner and then what's the right
tool if you will or what's the right
path to really build that relationship
and those paths whether it's a
partnership or an investment or some
combination of the two may not be
mutually exclusive so it's really more
about when is the right time to engage
with a large company I mean we're all
sitting here representing really large
companies and for early stage companies
um you know the proverbial two gals in a
in a garage
that's a huge undertaking to even just
go through the diligence process with
the likes of the the companies that are
up here so it's that part of the reason
why we start early is to build toward
that relationship when you know we're
putting pen to paper developing a
business case going through you know our
governance process which takes a bit
longer than the decision making on the
smaller company side
so it sounded like uh it was almost as
opposed to thinking about it in terms of
just kicking off a formal process that
there was some relationship building at
the beginning is that true for everybody
yeah I mean one of the reasons that I'm
sitting here today and the way I why I
like to do as much Outreach as I can on
at least in the region that I'm
responsible for is for exactly that
reason it's to start early so
um I always encourage people to just
contact me or you know mingle it at
events or come with any questions or or
show me you know the cool technology
that you have because
we can we can help guide you in what it
would be that our scientists would be
looking for when they're you know
evaluating an opportunity
um we can help you understand and
demystify the partnering process and the
types of of uh deals and deal structures
that we have we can help you understand
whether the direction or let's say the
indication that you might be thinking
about at the beginning
could be a really good way to exemplify
a technology and you don't necessarily
have to match it exactly to our
indication interests because you know we
can usually see whether there's a value
to transferring that to you know to a
different project or problem so you know
a lot of times people go on the websites
and try to see oh they're into this so
I'm going to try to you know fit my
round peg in this Square Hall even
though all the data that I've generated
is over here I'd rather see the data
that you've generated over here because
we can figure out whether that's going
to be translatable so yeah focus on what
you know best talk to us early and it's
really a scientific dialogue I mean it's
it's that's that's the the origin and
the and the end game of all of this
just to add on to that with if you start
a little bit earlier in the process you
can also assess culture fit so whether
it's acquisition or whether it's a
partnership you want to make sure that
you you feel that bond with whatever
company is that you're talking to so
part of that is is how you relationship
build at the beginning
and making sure that both both the
target whether it's the company
acquiring or the company partnering with
or the startup that you all are both
aligned to the same goals and the same
objectives so I would say similar to to
the rest of the folks on the panel the
earlier you start it could give you a
little bit more Direction too on who
your potential partner is longer term
great yeah and so one of the uh we heard
it actually as a highlight of the in the
conversation earlier in the fireside
chat that you know speed is of the
essence for for for us small companies
you want to move as quickly as we can
and and working with with large
companies is painfully slow right uh and
so the uh maybe it'd be great to hear
from uh from folks uh on the panel here
what is what are the right ways to speed
things up and maybe just as helpful what
are the wrong ways to attempt to speed
things up uh in any any specific
examples uh would would be great to hear
from
can I start there okay so first of all I
just wanna clarify that although you
know there is a governance process that
that we have to move through and
sometimes those committees meet monthly
and you know a lot a lot of the
timelines are are really around that
um it's just scheduling
we actually find that we're not the ones
holding up the process
um often the the companies are either
working with outside counsel that slows
things down or they have advisors or
board members that are you know kind of
having to be constantly
um
part of part of the process so I I
actually am in my experience we are
frequently waiting on the other party
um which is fine we have plenty of
things to do it's not it's not like
we're sitting around waiting for it but
it's it's just I don't think it's
actually true that it's necessarily slow
on the on the big Pharma side I mean
we're very clear about how long it's
going to take based on the governance
after that we're engaged you know all
the time
um two of the I think the mistakes that
I see one is
having a very
um rigid partnering model
uh and kind of coming in
very hard and and saying this is it this
is the kind of partnership that we want
and we're not going to be very flexible
whether it's because of your board or or
you know a model that you've picked
um that can slow things down because
we're actually quite flexible but we're
looking for the best the best model for
the individual
um process the other thing that slows
down uh is having to use external either
Consultants or attorneys or uh you know
people that that you don't have at your
fingertips all day long so that can slow
things down and I I
not frequently but more than
occasionally see companies that
leave too much of the discussion up to
their attorneys rather than owning you
know that conversation and having the
attorneys work for them so I would just
be be mindful of that you know it's your
deal you're driving it they work for you
and and make sure that they're not
taking advantage of my husband's an
attorney so I can say this without
getting in trouble but
yeah that that often slows things down
and and kind of breaks things apart
where it's unnecessary
maybe I'll add just a couple of things
one is just knowing what you're looking
for right in that uh interaction that
you're having or the conversation
um just hoping something is going to
happen is usually kind of you know when
you find out that uh I'm not getting to
a particular outcome so if you're
looking only for specific guidance right
or attraction whether we're working on
the right problem we just want to be on
your radar I mean that conversation can
happen fast if you're coming to specific
a partnership discussion where you want
to have a partnership you also want to
have a truth-seeking conversation with
the big Pharma which is hey what do you
think really is the right deal model
because every opportunity is going to
lead to a specific deal and as as you
know
it was just mentioned which is if you
have a very rigid mindset in terms of
what deal you're looking for and if the
big Pharma or the company doesn't think
that's the right deal those
conversations are really not going to go
anywhere so to keep driving for the
clarity and specificity and and and that
feedback uh from whoever your
counterpart is at the big company in
terms of what's possible here what's not
possible and then just go with that
maybe I'll add a few
um
comments on this point so we are set up
as I mentioned regionally in hot bed
Innovation markets with teams that
represent our therapeutic areas on the
pharmaceutical side
um they virtually mirror
um Jennifer's comments oncology
Immunology we do have an infectious
disease and vaccines group
cardiovascular metabolism retinol
and Neuroscience and then we have
scientists on our team that are focused
on Innovative platforms and new
therapeutic modalities and so those
scientists are here in the region
together with our business leads that
either are making strategic Investments
or Partnerships and so I think having
the first touch point and maybe the
second and third and fourth really focus
on the science and where the unmet need
is where the transformational
opportunity is and continue to build
those counterpart relationships so
finding your scientific Champion finding
your business champion and then
following those relationships through
that getting to know you phase the
diligence phase the the deal discussion
phase in whatever Direction the deal
discussions go that's how that's how we
work and you know we try to be really
transparent about
those relationships because the
scientific leads that are here in our
region then report up through their
respective therapeutic areas within
yanson thus having the clarity of the
Strategic priorities and the ultimate
decision making in governance I'm going
to throw out one don't which might be
controversial
but I think at uh at some point
inevitably in the process
um someone thinks it's a good idea to
reach out to our CEO to try to shake
things up a bit and you know if you have
it if you have a relationship with
Joaquin super but it doesn't tend to
speed things up going all the way up to
the top because it then
kind of trickles all the way down and it
goes back to you know where the
accountabilities and responsibilities
are and I understand you know the the
notion of you know wanting to get to
um you know the the highest person at
the pyramid
but it doesn't always have the intended
outcome
ingredients I know thanks something came
out of from a comments though it seemed
a little bit counter-intuitive it may be
great to to elaborate on which was uh
the you know uh being flexible but
knowing what you want
um and so I'm wondering if we could
elaborate on that a little bit more and
I think that might be especially
interesting for companies that have an
enabling technology that could be used
in any in a number of ways and going
back to a comment about
um you know you guys know best what what
you need
um we might have a lot of really great
ideas but it sounds like the best
approach is to
show the science the capabilities and
then see how the conversation evolves
but uh but there's some little vagueness
to that so it would be great to to maybe
comment on on that topic yeah happy to
expand upon that so let I'll just take a
specific example right with two
different extremes just to make the
point which is let's say you are working
on an interesting platform you have some
generated interesting data and you're
thinking oh maybe I want to get acquired
or somebody should acquire the
technology but someone like us is taking
a look at it and say this this is
interesting this is a nice experiment
it's good signal generating but I think
we should work on a pilot here or some
feasibility study which could take six
months or 12 months we're going to give
you some clinical data maybe you can
utilize your platform and see okay you
can identify the patients who respond or
not and then we'll talk about whether
there's a partnership in place or not
usually those conversations go about a
little bit rounded way and you feel like
you've spent three or four months
getting to that particular outcome I
would say having those direct
conversations with the scientists
initially when you're building those
relationships and saying okay how are
you seeing it what are the opportunities
you see with it what are the gaps you
see by that and and what's your
perspective what's your plans are and
then trying to reach that alignment very
clear very clearly and very early on in
terms of what's possible with respect to
a potential
partnership right and then which could
be as I said a very very early on
feasibility study or it could be as good
as okay we want to really utilize this
technology for some specific
applications within our drug Discovery
and development efforts could go a long
way in terms of how smooth the process
feels
yeah another example that I'll give is
um you know we we often hear well we
want a cocoa deal you know we want to do
a co-development co-commercialization
from a company with like four people yes
just leaving their postdocs and and it's
the kind of thing where the technology
is going to advance pretty quickly you
know it's it's something that we if it's
going to work it's going to work in the
next you know two to three years are you
really going to build a commercial
organization and do you understand that
when that happens that it often comes at
the expense of research
um
I dear dear uh does your board you know
think that that's the way it should go
and if they do why right so is there a
reason why they and and a lot of times
you hear well we want to you know build
value in the company we want to bring
value to company but you really have to
think hard about is it is it realistic
at this point or is is it better that
you learn
um about the development and
commercialization of something that your
technology can enable by being in a
partnership and then maybe you know a
couple years down the line that becomes
uh your your deal structure preference
but so it I think you just have to also
think about how much can you really bite
off and are you really willing to build
the capabilities to do that can you
attract the right talent to do that
given the stage that you're at and and
you know the experience that you have so
that's just another example
all right thank you so uh
do do your teams ever proactively go out
and look for opportunities
um as opposed to the the inbounds and if
so
um uh what's that process like and are
there other things what are the things
that we can do to increase the chances
of being seen along those lines
I'm happy to start
um so we're all here today we're all
here to see you to meet with you um to
network with you uh I think most of us
go to different events like this as well
throughout the year different types of
conferences whether it's specialty
focused conferences or big congresses as
well so we do go out and Outreach to to
you all and and certainly take inbound
calls as well we have teams within our
within our organization but also see
things at conferences or hear about
things out in the field and want to
learn a little bit more so we do
proactive research and Outreach to you
all to to learn more and see what stage
you are at and if there's an opportunity
to to learn more to partner to continue
conversations down the road whether it's
six months
um and and see how you all progress
along along your journey so we're we're
there learning about the different
Industries learning about where the The
Innovation is coming from and um excited
to be here today again to to see all of
you and learn more about what you have
um generating in your in your brains and
and talk to you uh later today as well
yeah um a few things that I could
highlight that we do also is
almost on a regular basis we're meeting
with all the Venture funds out there and
looking at the portfolio companies that
they have so it's a very systematic
review based on the areas of Interest so
my team will kind of you know work in
the background so almost every two weeks
I'm meeting with one particular Venture
fund out there and looking at the
companies they have in their portfolio
so that's another way for a lot of those
companies to
um essentially give either a one pager
or or sometimes they even plan for like
a 10 minute pitch as a part of those
events we also keep a database for all
the new companies that are getting
started so they do make it to our list
and then sometimes we might reach out to
them when we feel like okay this is an
interesting area that we want to get to
know more uh JP Morgan uh event which
happens in San Francisco is another
great way for either us to reach out or
for companies to reach out to us
yeah maybe I'll um build upon what's
been said because clearly uh the the
approaches that have been mentioned are
are things were here today as well
um
coming back to I think the the question
I would say that we primarily
proactively look for opportunities and
it really starts with what are the
Strategic priorities and aims of the
therapeutic areas and franchises because
we really work in partnership with them
and so with the Insight of where the
gaps are where the asset and Technology
priorities are we're going out and and
looking for really the the most
promising Innovations
um wherever they may originate around
the globe so we take a coordinated
approach with our colleagues in other
regions to find the most breakthrough
solution in a particular area in
addition to a lot of the the approaches
that have already been mentioned I I
I've been sharing that we do take this
approach of building relationships over
the long term and having that be be
across academics centers with Venture
funds with companies maintaining touch
points every quarter if it's too early
to partner so that we're monitoring
progress and seeing their Readiness to
want to engage in a little bit more of a
of a conversation and then the last
thing I'll mention is as part of our
incubation efforts we have 14
incubators under our jlabs brand around
the globe
three in the region that I lead one in
South San Francisco one in La Jolla and
then one in Houston and then the
remaining kind of peppered around the
rest of the country North America
Asia and Europe and these are
relationships that are call it no
strings attached we provide
state-of-the-art lab space prototyping
space mentorship a window into J J a
helping to shape the direction of the
science or technology and through that
organic relationship that's built
partner with companies again when the
time when the time is right so that's
another element of
proactively looking at companies and
then engaging with them as the the
technology or the asset matures
great thank you so maybe back to some
tactical questions so the you know a lot
of the times the company that folks are
reaching out to is very large
organization
and a big question oftentimes is where's
the front door right who who should you
reach out to First and sometimes from
our point of view we think of well
should we go to therapeutic Area Tech
you know functional folks or should we
go to the bde folks and uh and maybe we
get funneled to the right place but
usually getting getting to the right
first person can be very important any
any tips advice or or best practices for
uh how to find the the right front door
yeah I mean I would say
um you've heard that there's you know
sort of regional roles as well as a
therapeutic area Focus
um I'm in this role in the regional role
for exactly this reason you only need
one door right so if you're based on the
West Coast or in Canada or you are
involved with a VC or an incubator or
accelerator in West Coast or Canada it's
me and then I can you know easily triage
and and funnel things to wherever it
needs to go so we're trying to make it
really easy you don't have and to be
honest you know our our therapeutic area
BD Partners will sometimes change you
know they decide okay well I've done
enough in oncology now I'm interested in
Immunology or whatever so and it's not
necessarily easy to find out that that's
happened
um so the the yeah the easiest thing to
do is start with the regional uh heads
and and that's your single point of
contact and it can remain that way even
if the company moves
um and yeah yeah we will find the right
people the right scientists to get
involved with you're welcome to contact
our scientists I mean they publish it
all the time their emails are you know
in in their Publications the the
challenge there is that they are not
really focused on the partnering process
right so
um it's not all that effective if you
want to get uh like one person to kind
of guide you through the whole
relationship building it's fine if it's
just you know I saw your paper I'm
interested in talking to you I mean
we're not going to tell you you can't
reach out to a scientist that's that'd
be great if you did that but if it's
specifically about the partnering
process the best place to start is is
with the BD partner that you know you
have the easiest access to
it's similar at Medtronic
um use LinkedIn go to these these types
of events business development is
probably one of the best ways you can
start or corporate development Medtronic
also has a ventures arm you could reach
out to we have a portal on medtronic's
website you could submit your idea
through and it gets funneled to the
appropriate BD person within our
operating units as well even if for
instance if you have a cardiovascular
idea you can still reach out to a
non-cardiovascular business development
person and we can connect you to the
right the right individual representing
that operating unit so I personally
would start with business development
you'll probably get the fastest response
time as well if you reach out to BD
so we actually refer to the four Johnson
and Johnson Innovation regions is the
four red doors into J J so it's very
similar that's the that's why we're here
we want to help you navigate the
Behemoth of you know these these large
companies and even though an opportunity
may not be
um either regionally focused with a
respective team or it might end up being
a later stage opportunity that's taken
forward by our late stage BD group we're
here to help navigate and find you to
the right place
and our website
has a lot of information on it that you
can search by region you can search by
um you know if you're interested in
Strategic investment on the jjdc site I
will tell you that when there's
something that's inbound we think about
it first in terms of the science and the
Strategic fit not what the deal
structure looks like so we're assessing
at you know the most fundamental level
so even though your first touch Point
might be an investor from jjdc we're
going to look at it taking a step back
and saying what is it that you're
interested in and how might we you know
bring something to the table other than
our capital
and I think having said all of this I
would go with where you have the warmest
relationship and certainly all of us
here on the partnering and BD side this
is what we do every day but if you have
a scientist or someone in regulatory or
someone that you know at the company
chances are they're going to navigate to
us anyway but it is a nice intro when
it's a little bit warmer
maybe a couple of quick quick tips if
you're reaching out to scientists it's
probably best to do that at one of the
scientific congresses or conferences
that if you're presenting there and if
they've seen your work then it's much
easier for you to connect with them
because what happens then is they reach
out to us in business development and
say hey I actually saw this talk this is
an interesting technology platform can
you please help me look into it so kind
of you know I've already checked one of
the boxes right that BD would typically
do if you are reaching out to business
development for Genentech it's single
Business Development Group so very easy
to reach out to us our email addresses
on our website if you do reach out
please do two things send a
non-confidential deck right and write at
least one paragraph you want to make the
job easier for the other side right in
terms of what the technology is why is
it useful uh in in what might be Synergy
right with with Pharma here so that the
business development person can
essentially take that and and we have BD
people who are scientifically proficient
but they deal with hundreds of emails a
day right how do you make their lives
easier as well so those those two things
if you do I think it it has a good
chance at least it gets the right
assessment
great thank you so we'll go uh with a
couple last topics here the first one so
we'll fast forward to okay we've gone
through a process and now you're
entering a Alliance Management land uh
in the organization and some quick tips
maybe for when you get to that stage and
is it is it common that it's smooth
sailing after that or are there lessons
learned that could that could make
Things Fall Apart even at those later
stages
I would say it's as good of a smooth
sailing as you go from dating to
marriage I guess
the
there are a lot of things you learn
while you're working together and and
what you want to do though is you want
to find the right partner right kind of
you know if you're going through a
partnering process you may be talking to
three or four different companies you
have to recognize that when you do work
together
your aspirations as a company are going
to change the science that you're
working on that's going to evolve and
who is going to be the right partner
over there who values you and what your
aspirations as a company are and is
going to be flexible enough to go on
that Journey with you so those
relationships that you build uh during
that partnering process is a good
biomarker for for what's going to happen
once you are once you are in alliances
and uh historically we have had
companies where we partnered uh when
they were very young and and we have had
multiple contracts with them over the
years so we expanded relationships as
their capabilities change and as our
capabilities change so you're looking
obviously uh always for for that right
partner recognizing that whatever you're
signing today on that contract it's not
going to be the same two or three years
from now and then you're not going to be
the same company two or three years from
now
greater so we're almost out of time here
so maybe we'll end with a last one that
might be um on the Tactical side as well
uh for for the times that we're in now
so the you know with what's going on in
the markets in general in the biotech
markets in particular uh has anything
changed uh is anything evolving in the
way you do deals the way you look at
deals or the process
um be interesting to hear if there's
anything that's specific to the times
now or that the direction that things
are headed uh moving forward
yeah I mean I I think what what I'm
seeing changing and I referred to this
earlier is
um
the expectation of the partner company
uh you know the smaller company coming
in is getting a little more realistic
right it's it's leveling out it's not
every company's going to build a
commercial organization tomorrow
um I think that it's it's becoming a
little bit easier because the
expectations are a little bit more down
to earth figuring out what do you bring
what to break we bring how do we make
this a you know a good a good
collaboration versus
the the that the peak kind of area a
time where everybody thought that the
money was just going to keep flowing
endlessly and that they were going to be
able to build out very very quickly and
you know be able to just have endless
resources to do their work and so now
it's becoming kind of like the way it
was before that
um and and it's more focused on what
does each party bring so I'm seeing that
um getting it's easier to partner now
frankly
yeah I would say Financial solvency of
the companies that we partner with has
definitely become a factor that we
really didn't worry about
until last year because the cap access
to Capital was so easy and that also
influenced as Jennifer is pointing out
what kind of deal architectures and
structures these companies were looking
for so so the way that has changed kind
of you know the way we do partnership is
at least on a on a couple of uh
different deal architectures we're more
cautious doing option type deals now
because you rely on the partner to take
the program up to a particular stage and
then you can exercise your option
there's no guarantee they're going to
have the capital uh or or the
capabilities or the resources to
continue to take the program up to a
particular stage so being very cautious
with option deals we're also being very
cautious in terms of how much upfront we
put on the table versus ensuring that
there is going to be access to Capital
as the technology platform or the
program moves along and we continue to
support the company uh as as the
technology mature so those two things
are definitely changing we're also
seeing
what happened in the last few years was
companies were coming out with series a
with hundreds of millions of dollars and
300 to 500 employees uh which but they
really didn't have that much that many
programs to keep those people employed
so companies are going through or
downsizing right now so that's also a
concern for us in terms of whether they
have the right capabilities or whether
they'll continue to have the right
capabilities to move the programs along
so doing due diligence both on the
financial side as well as on the
capability side and the resources side
has definitely become a factor and we
also have to be very thoughtful in terms
of what are the right deal architectures
so that both of us could come out of the
the lull that we are in right now and
and then the underlying science will
continue to evolve
yeah I think what I would add is
for those of us that have been in this
um
crazy world of Biotech and biopharm for
a few too many decades then I want to
count
um things are always cyclical and so the
cycle that we're in right now is
volatile and it there's kind of The Tale
of Two Cities like the public the
companies that you know had the
exuberance of 2021 went public and now
they're trading under their IPO prices
Capital sufficiency is an issue and so
if you're looking for potentially
um things on sale a lot of there's a lot
to look around for I think you know
being more on the early stage Innovation
side I was really interested to see a
report that McKinsey put out earlier
this year on best practices and sourcing
Innovation and it points you know to
some extent seeing kind of the the trend
if you will of deal making and value
being created in that early stage and so
there's some really interesting data
that
um I would I would encourage you to look
at on you know the top six
outperformers of biopharm that really
create value and
um and do deals early early stage
perfect thank you well I'd like to thank
our panel for joining us today I think
some of them might be around so if you
see them take the opportunity to come
and chat uh and thank you very much
[Applause]