Biotech Venture Capital Fund

[gerberlorenz]

Hi there,
The proposed idea looks to me mostly like a 'Biotech Venture Capital' construct. Agree? Are there any other similar Biotech Venture Capitalists that specialise in one specific disease or treatment? Are there enough viable startups around to build a whole portfolio(risk spreading)? If there are not enough startups, I guess the potential millions need to be invested elsewhere.

Just some thoughts to start with
Cheers
Lorenz

[mhorisberger]

Hi,
I think it would be worthwhile to work on analyzing the potential volume of vc capital that could be consumed by the market for ms therapy. This study is quite new and shows a significant growth of investment in neurology therapeutics during the last 4 years.
MS is in the neurology category, the report gives no data about how much is spent in MS therapy, but says around 50% of the year 2014 neurology money for vc and ipo/fopo (US volume around 2600million USD) was for parkinson/alzheimer/pain:
bio.org/articles/emerging-therapeutic-company-investment-and-deal-trends

It could also be worthwhile to try and directly contact people in the life-science investment field to get more accurate information and data. For example Bruce Booth, who published this article about the mentioned study.
forbes.com/sites/brucebooth/2015/06/15/disease-specific-allocations-the-past-decade-of-venture-ipos-and-deal-making/
linkedin.com/pub/bruce-booth/1/a30/7a
lifescivc.com/about/

Checking for clinical trials in the US over the internet, I found a couple of MS related trials. From this list, the company behind the trial can be found easily. However, I am not sure if this is the best way to collect investment possibilities.
clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=multiple+sclerosis&cond=%22Multiple+Sclerosis%22

It is quite some work to collect such data in order to judge if there is enough direct financing potential, and it would be helpful to get some advice from people like Bruce Booth. I would be curious about Mr. Booth's opinion about a crowd vc platform for MS therapy.

Cheers, Markus

ps.
sorry, system does not let me post links, thats why they're crippled above...

[mhorisberger]

just realized, in the appendix, the mentioned study also gives data for the amount of vc capital spent for MS therapy in the US:

Code:


in Millions USD:
Disease-Subindication 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Neurology - MS        $65  $20  $48  $129  $40  $2   $9   $17  $21   $5


Investing in new therapies appears to be heavily cyclic, the chart shows pretty much the world economy history, many of the subindications show the same trend.

This data is from BIO, sounds quite trustworthy to me, there are guys from Roche, Pfitzer, etc in the board:

About BIO
BIO is the world’s largest trade association representing biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state
biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations.
BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and
environmental biotechnology products. BIO also produces the BIO International Convention, the world’s largest
gathering of the biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and partnering meetings held around
the world.

[HansjoergFromBEF]

Thanks for your input Markus.

2011/2012 was the time when Opexa tried to raise capital for their phase 3 study for tovaxin/tcelna used for RRMS patients. If I remember it correctly, they were talking about 30 mio USD.
But they were not able to get the money. That's why the decided to go on with a "cheaper" phased 2b study for tcelna used for SPMS patients.

Your remarks about the economy could also explain, why they didn't succeed in raising the money.

This is also a reason, why I think it could make sense to establish a "vc-company" which is mainly backed by people with a very strong interest in "MS". I assume that such a group would be driven less by the current economic situation. Also, I expect them to be willing to take more risks.

Cheers, Hansjörg

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