Category Archives: Business Development

“May you live in interesting times” – or so goes the phrase. In 1966, RFK Jr’s father famously used that quote to capture the turbulence of the times, and continued: “Like it or not, we live in interesting times. They

By Mike Cloonan, Chief Executive Officer of Sionna Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC The drug development process in rare diseases is rife with challenges especially when companies target significant differentiation or first-in-class targets. Identifying

By Mike Cloonan, CEO of Sionna Therapeutics In 2016, following robust discovery efforts by Pfizer and others, the NBD1 domain of the CFTR protein was largely considered undruggable. They knew it was a key target – the most common genetic

Today we’re thrilled to announce the acquisition of Nimbus’ allosteric Tyk2 autoimmune program by Takeda for up to $6 billion in an upfront and future milestones. As a potential best-in-class asset in the significant new therapeutic category of selective Tyk2

By Deanna Petersen, CBO of AVROBio, as part of the From the Trenches feature of LifeSciVC Gene therapy’s tremendous potential to transform the treatment of both rare and common diseases has been understood for decades. But few may appreciate how

By Deanna Petersen, CBO of AVROBIO, and Ted Tanaka, consultant with Tanaka International LLC, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC Imagine yourself setting out to do business in Japan. You step off the plane, check into

By Deanna M. Petersen, CBO of AVROBIO, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC One of the most common questions I get asked is how I got into the business side of the biotech industry, and in

By Deanna Petersen, CBO of AVROBIO, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC It’s tempting to think that the first skill you need to learn in business development is negotiating. That’s important, of course, but it should

By Deanna Petersen, Chief Business Officer of AVROBIO, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC Most of the titles in a biotech C-suite are generally self-explanatory. The Chief Technical and Manufacturing Officer runs operations in CMC and

Part 2: Gaining leverage – and using it wisely By Deanna Petersen, Chief Business Officer of AVROBIO, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. In a recent blog post, I walked through my tips for reading your adversaries’

Part 1: Maintaining your cool – while making your adversary sweat By Deanna Petersen, Chief Business Officer of AVROBIO, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC It’s back-to-school season, and that puts me in the frame of

By Pamela L. Esposito, CBO of Replimune, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. “You gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, know when to run…” Kenny Rogers’

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

Venture capital is a long investment cycle business, and never before has that been so clear as now in the face of the ongoing COVID pandemic. Even with the unprecedented public equity market volatility, venture investing into private biopharma companies

This blog post was written by Deanna Petersen, CBO of AVROBIO, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. When AVROBIO went public in June 2018, I found myself on the steep end of an unexpected but interesting

Today Alkermes announced its acquisition of Rodin Therapeutics, a leader in the field of synaptic dysfunction and neuronal epigenetics. Alkermes extensive experience in CNS diseases made them an ideal partner for Rodin, and this acquisition helps expand Alkermes’ efforts into

This blog was written by Deanna Petersen, CBO of AVROBIO (@dmp9818), as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. Building a leading gene therapy pipeline in under two years (and a lot of air miles): how to persevere

This blog was written by Tariq Kassum, COO of Obsidian Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. Every morning before I go to work, I review my calendar for the day. This gets me into the

This blog was written by Samantha Truex, CEO of Quench Bio and Atlas Entrepreneur-in-Residence, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. In early September, I saw my two teenagers off to new destinations where they will live

This blog was written by Deanna Petersen, CBO of AVROBIO, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. As with most professions – especially those that involve longer-term outcomes – the way people get good at BD is

This blog post was written by Ros Deegan, CBO of Bicycle Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. It’s heresy to write this but it’s trains not bicycles that come to mind when describing our partnering

This blog was written by Tariq Kassum, COO and Head of Corporate Development at Obsidian Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. Experience can be a tough teacher. Over the last two decades as a biotech

This blog was written by Samantha Truex, an Atlas Entrepreneur-in-Residence, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. People who know me well will agree that patience is not one of my personal virtues.  That said, I recognize

This blog was written by Jeb Keiper, CFO & CBO of Nimbus Therapeutics LLC, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. A fresh Q1 is underway, your meetings at JPMorgan were top notch, and you have a

Today Nimbus and Celgene announced a significant partnership focused on autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The alliance includes two pre-clinical autoimmune-focused programs in various stages of drug discovery. The most advanced program is a highly selective inhibitor of Tyk2, an immunokinase

This blog was written by Brian Fenton and Paul Burgess, CBO and GC of RaNA Therapeutics, respectively, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC.  On April 18, 1775, Paul Revere was summoned by Dr. Joseph Warren of

Lightning can definitely strike the same place twice, or so it seems in biotech. The latest example is True North Therapeutics’ recent acquisition by Bioverativ for its program addressing cold agglutinin disease, a type of rare autoimmune hemolytic anemia: it

Today Celgene announced its acquisition of Delinia for $300 million upfront, and up to $475 million in milestones, adding to its growing portfolio of novel immunology medicines. Delinia’s rapid trajectory over the past fifteen months has been exciting to watch: this

Today Allergan announced a transformative deal with Lysosomal Therapeutics (LTI), an emerging biotech focused on Parkinson’s Disease through an understanding of human genetics and sphingolipid biology (here). This deal brings a new chapter for LTI as we move our lead

Good riddance to 2016, and a warm embrace to 2017 – or so is the sentiment of most biotech investors as they head into the 35th annual JPM Healthcare Conference. Many have bemoaned last year as an abysmal one for

Earnout payments have been nearly ubiquitous in biotech M&A transactions for the past decade. Given the risks, costs, and timelines in drug R&D, these contingent value rights, or “biobucks”, play an important role in bridging the gap in valuation expectations

This blog was written by Samantha Truex, former CBO of Padlock Therapeutics and Atlas Entrepreneur-in-Residence, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. The search for creative deal structures that strike a “win-win” balance is a noble one.

This post was written by Samantha Truex, former CBO of Padlock Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. Biotech M&A is all the rage these days. Allergan has acquired four small companies in the past couple

This post was written by Ros Deegan, CBO of Bicycle Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. Sail-away It’s January on a ship in the South Pacific. Instead of enjoying hula and coconuts, I’m struggling to

This blog was written by Samantha Truex, former CBO of Padlock Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. I grew up in a setting where “continuous improvement” and “total quality management” were household terms, as unusual

With the big cancer confab ASCO 2016 fading into memory, R&D teams everywhere are getting back to work on their cancer programs – and across the industry many of them will be doing the same work, on the same targets,

This blog was written by Jeb Keiper, CBO of Nimbus Therapeutics LLC, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. Unsurprisingly, I had not given that much thought to the parent entity of my new employer when I

CRISPR/Cas genome editing has captured the attention of the popular media, scientific community, and the investment world: the promise of going into a cell and precisely making changes in their genetic code to cure them of illness is certainly captivating.

Over the past seven years, Celgene has emerged as one of the most active and creative deal-makers in the biopharma industry. The Boston Consulting Group’s Biopharma Partnering Survey and Benchmarking analysis examines BD activity and perceptions across the industry, and

This blog was written by Ankit Mahadevia, CEO at Spero Therapeutics, as part of the “From the Trenches” feature of LifeSciVC. In my experience, looking to the outside world for new pipeline ideas isn’t just the realm of larger companies.   The