Author Archives: Jonathan Montagu

By Jonathan Montagu, CEO of HotSpot Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC HotSpot’s trip to Barcelona for the recent European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Annual Meeting was no ‘European Vacation,’ but it was certainly

By Jonathan Montagu, CEO of HotSpot Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC As Boston’s weather has started its turn from the frigid darkness that is a northeast winter to the longer days and lighter conditions

By Jonathan Montagu, CEO of HotSpot Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC Signaling pathways are the intricate networks that govern cell behavior, lying at the crux of cell function. They are used by nature to

By Jonathan Montagu, CEO of HotSpot Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC The phrase ‘build it and they will come’ dates all the way back to the Old Testament, and in more recent times has

By Gerry Harriman and Jonathan Montagu, CSO and CEO, respectively, and co-founders of HotSpot Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. HotSpot Therapeutics today announced a strategic collaboration with Abbvie to develop IRF5 transcription factor inhibitors

By Jonathan Montagu, CEO and founder of HotSpot Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. White Hat Hackers, sometimes called “ethical hackers,” are individuals that work to find and fix security problems in a system by

By Jonathan Montagu, CEO of HotSpot Therapeutics, and Ramy Farid, CEO of Schrodinger, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. No, your next doctor will not be a robot. Nor will an algorithm cure cancer. However, AI

By Jonathan Montagu, CEO and Co-founder of HotSpot Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC Today marks an important point in our journey to patients as HotSpot Therapeutics announces its $100MM Series C financing.  This infusion

By Tim Reilly & Jonathan Montagu, CDO and CEO of HotSpot Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC Now 10 years into the golden era of immuno-oncology (I-O) following the first FDA approval of ipilimumab (anti-CTLA4)

By Jonathan Montagu, CEO of HotSpot Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC Returning to work following the pandemic presents an opportunity to think creatively about how to re-configure the workplace.  CEO’s that I have spoken

This blog was written by Jonathan Montagu, CEO and co-founder of HotSpot Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. Today marks an important milestone for HotSpot Therapeutics as we announce our Series B financing, but it

This blog was written by Jonathan Montagu, CEO and founder of HotSpot Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. The predictions around the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) have been broad reaching but it’s clear that

This blog was written by Jonathan Montagu, CEO and co-founder of Hotspot Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC.   In the quest towards building high-performing teams, biopharma can lift a page from the tech playbook around

This blog was written by Jonathan Montagu, CEO of Hotspot Therapeutics and Atlas EIR, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. It starts off with flu-like symptoms and progresses to a perpetual low-grade fever, excessive sweating and

Every life sciences company needs to make good program choices.  Big pharma creates value through smart portfolio management while small biotech companies can be defined by a single lead asset.  In both cases, the opportunity cost of poor decision-making can

Much has been written about the merits and demerits of the virtual biotech model.  In essence, a virtual biotech outsources all non-core activities and rejects the need for in-house laboratories.  Instead, a small internal team manages execution outside the company,

Despite many decades of success, small molecule drug discovery appears to be increasingly challenged.  The likelihood of approval of a small molecule at phase 1 is approximately half that of a biologic; pharma companies have shifted their pipelines dramatically towards