Neil Littman

Excited to have led the closing panel entitled "Bridging Science and Investment" in San Diego, CA. Joined by Dr. Sanjeev Thohan (Cogentis Therapeutics, Inc./Phoenix Molecular Designs) and Dr. Yuhua Ji (Grace Science, LLC ), we explored the intersection of scientific innovation and investment strategies. Key topics of this thought-provoking panel included: - Strategic investment approaches in the evolving biotech landscape - The critical role of venture capital in accelerating drug discovery - Innovative funding models for cutting-edge pharmaceutical research - The future of biotechnologies and the investment opportunities they present Thank you to the panelists for sharing their invaluable insights. Our discussion underscored the vital role of strategic investments in driving innovation and shaping the future of drug discovery and development. Together, we are paving the way for groundbreaking advancements in biotech. #biotechnology #MedicinalChemistry, #strategy #drugdevelopment Proventa International #Bio2024 BIO International Convention #DrugDiscovery #Investment #VentureCapital #Biotech #SanDiego American Association for Precision Medicine (AAPM) WISE World Investors & Entrepreneurs Society Agility Pharmaceuticals Precision BioPharma #ai #news

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Looking back at the past 30 years, I remember myself doing science about 55-60 hours a week, and then helping venture capitalists and biotech start-ups about 70-80 h/week. Usually unsatisfied, sometimes exhausted, but pleased overall. This overexciting workaholism was somehow interrupted last year. I had less work and a lot of mountaineering, - climbed about 5.5 Chomolungma attitudes during the year. It feels like I have reached the stage at which it is a time to start sharing experiences and understanding of the universe. This week, I started to share by publishing an analytic report at SeekigAlpha about TG Therapeutics. This small biotech company has developed a third-to-market anti-CD20 mAb for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS). Along with the company, this report briefly touches upon current treatments for MS, the competitive landscape of therapeutics, and the uncertainties surrounding the development of new BTK inhibitors. https://lnkd.in/drAFx9vt

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Fascinating Low Valuation on IPA Therapeutics(NASDAQ:IPA $1.26) On March 29, 2022 IPA paid $20 million euros or approximately $22 million USD for BioStrand AI. The euro was trading(1 euro = 1.10 USD) at this time. Since this acquisition BioStrand AI has announced several significant events/successes including, granting of the HYFT Technology Patent by the European Patent Office(EPO), BioStrand solves the Information Integration Dilemma(IID), BioStrand creates a revolutionary approach to biological sequence retrieval, BioStrand introduces an advanced Foundational AI Model utilizing LLM stacking & HYFT Technology, InterSystems & BioStrand AI Collaborate to Unveil Innovative Integration of Vector Search, BioStrand's AI has been learning from IPA's leading, proprietary Antibody Discovery Database(possibly the best in the World)for the last 24 months, and much more. IPA has been working on antibody research for 40+ years. https://lnkd.in/gJHWdgck https://blog.biostrand.ai Yet, the entire current Market Capitalization of IPA(CRO + BioStrand + Talem) is approximately $35 million USD today. IPA's Contract Research Organization(CRO) has had 3 record revenue quarters in a row, is growing at approx. 20%, and Fiscal 2024 Revenue should be around $20 million USD. They deal with 19 of the top 20 pharmas, and have over 600 partners. One could argue that the CRO is worth between $80-$120 million. FairJourney Biologics(an excellent CRO) was just put up for sale for $1 Billion+. Although FJBio has $45 million in projected EBITA, IPA has better numbers regarding projects, libraries generated, partners, species used, and 1/2 the employees. In other words, better data to train the AI models. Wet lab combined with AI will be critical moving forward. I also believe BioStrand AI is undiscovered by most stock market participants. For Information Purposes Only. Please complete your own due diligence. CFP has a position in IPA. Is a short squeeze possible? Sum of the parts(1 + 1 = 11) IPA (ImmunoPrecise Antibodies)BioStrand (a subsidiary of IPA) InterSystems hashtag #ai hashtag #HYFTTechnology hashtag #drugdiscovery hashtag #LENSai hashtag #antibodies hashtag #LLMS hashtag #NLP hashtag #semantics hashtag #pharma hashtag #healthcare hashtag #biotech hashtag #multimodality

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The FDA greenlighted one of our portfolio companies to move a novel antidepressant drug to Phase 2a clinical trial! I am excited to share important positive news from Freedom Biosciences, a San Francisco-based clinical-stage biotech we have invested in via LongeVC back in 2023. The company has just announced FDA approval of investigational new drug (IND) application for their FREE001 Phase 2a program in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Freedom Bio plans to initiate its Phase 2a clinical trial in the first half of this year, which has the potential to address a critical unmet medical need in patients suffering from TRD. FREE001 is a ketamine-based combination therapy for the treatment of TRD, which builds on John Krystal work in Yale University. He showed that the combination may extend the antidepressant effects of ketamine from 2-7 days up to 2 to 3 weeks. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a debilitating and chronic condition with limited effective treatment options, and Freedom Bio tries to tackle its specific case, treatment-resistant depression, when a person diagnosed with MDD does not respond adequately to a course of appropriate antidepressant medication within a certain time frame. MDD is one of the most common mental health disorders in the United States (US), with an estimated 21.0 million adults (8.3% of all adults) having at least 1 major depressive episode in 2020 (link to statistics in the comments). MDD also impacts physical health, worsens outcomes of other medical conditions, and, on average, results in a 10-year reduction in life expectancy. I am inspired by the achievements of Dina Burkitbayeva and Freedom Bio’s team in this truly challenging and notoriously hard area of drug discovery! Way to go, folks. #neuroscience #drugdiscovery #FDA

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Discover 10 big pharma and biotech companies that have spun out their own venture capital arms to invest in startups in the industry. #venturecapital #veteranventures

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An investment memo on Laverock Therapeutics. This memo is for research purposes and reflects my interest in writing an investment blog. It should not be considered a recommendation for investment. I have no financial interest or gain from the company discussed, which was selected randomly for my series of memos. I plan to write one or two such memos every month. As this is for personal writing, I do not provide recommendations on investment amounts or deal summaries and hence I have not created exit scenarios analysing different outcomes with multiple probabilities, returns, and the Multiple of Invested Capital (MOIC) as is typical in some investment memos. #investmentmemo #biotech #lifesciences #investment #personalnarrative

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In Episode 3 of the "Brain Cancer Science Talk" series on #MissionGBM, we chat with John de Groot, MD (Division Chief of Neuro-Oncology, UCSF) about immunotherapies, the need for combination protocols, Focused Ultrasound, and necessary improvements to clinical trial design and Regulatory framework to advance the development of treatment options for #braincancer patients. #FUS #ImmunoOncology #GBM #Onward #Nof1onBehalfofAll

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This will be a fascinating SynBioBeta talk - on how the combined tools of synthetic biology allowed Creyon Bio to build a successful drug in a few months 😳

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According to the latest Pitchbook data, venture creation in biotech hit its slowest quarterly pace in eight years during 1Q 2024. With just over 60 new biotechs raising their first round of financing, the sector’s company formation activity has slowed 50-60% from its historic peak in 2021. Thank you Bruce Booth for penning your views on why this is a good thing. -Contraction in venture creation IS a healthy dynamic for the sector. -We need to ensure that the best ideas are getting advanced by the sector. -Greater discipline should translate into better returns in the long term for LPs and GPs/ VC #Venturecapital #Startups

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🚀 Latest & Biggest Startup Funding Rounds 🚀 #1: Xaira Therapeutics 💼 Sector: Biotech 💰 Funding: $1B 📝 Details: Xaira Therapeutics secured over $1 billion from investors including Arch Venture Partners and Foresite Capital. Led by Marc Tessier-Lavigne, the San Francisco-based firm aims to leverage AI models for drug discovery. #2: Augment 💼 Sector: Artificial Intelligence 💰 Funding: $227M 📝 Details: Palo Alto's Augment locked up a $227 million Series B round, providing AI coding assistance to developers. With backing from Sutter Hill Ventures and Index Ventures, Augment is set to redefine coding support. #3: Rippling 💼 Sector: Human Resources 💰 Funding: $200M 📝 Details: HR startup Rippling wrapped up a huge $200 million round, offering a workforce management platform that integrates HR, IT, and finance. The San Francisco-based startup saw a 20% valuation increase, now at $13.5 billion. #4: Cognition 💼 Sector: Artificial Intelligence 💰 Funding: $175M 📝 Details: San Francisco's Cognition secured a $175 million investment for its AI-powered coding assistant, Devin. With Founders Fund leading the round, Cognition aims to revolutionize coding practices. #5: Endeavor BioMedicines 💼 Sector: Biotech 💰 Funding: $133M 📝 Details: San Diego-based Endeavor BioMedicines raised $132.5 million for its Series C round, focusing on medicines for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. With a total funding of nearly $300 million, Endeavor aims to address critical medical needs. #6: ThreatLocker 💼 Sector: Cybersecurity 💰 Funding: $115M 📝 Details: ThreatLocker, a cybersecurity startup offering zero trust endpoint security solutions, raised a $115 million Series D led by General Atlantic. With doubled revenue in the past year, ThreatLocker is poised for further growth. #7: Lumeris 💼 Sector: Healthcare 💰 Funding: $100M 📝 Details: St. Louis-based Lumeris secured a $100 million investment for its healthcare spending platform. With support from Deerfield Management and Endeavor Health, Lumeris aims to streamline healthcare operations. #8: Perplexity AI 💼 Sector: Artificial Intelligence 💰 Funding: $63M 📝 Details: Perplexity AI announced a $62.7 million round and is in talks for a larger funding round. With investors like Nvidia and Jeff Bezos, Perplexity AI is set to expand its AI search engine capabilities. #9: Midi Health 💼 Sector: Healthcare 💰 Funding: $60M 📝 Details: Los Altos-based Midi Health closed a $60 million Series B round for its virtual care clinic for women. With a total funding of $100 million, Midi Health aims to expand its telemedicine services. #10: Givebutter 💼 Sector: CRM 💰 Funding: $50M 📝 Details: Austin-based Givebutter closed a $50 million strategic growth investment for its nonprofit fundraising and CRM platform. With continued support, Givebutter aims to enhance its fundraising solutions. 💥 Please like and repost if you found this useful. 📩 Subscribe to my newsletter: www.foundersbay.com/events

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On the latest Vital Signs, Nikhil Krishnan and I had a ton of fun chatting with Dr. Atul Butte. Dr. Butte is a professor at UCSF, Chief Data Scientist of the UC Health System, and a co-founder of numerous healthcare startups. In our conversation, Dr. Butte shared his takes on healthcare AI opportunities, challenges, hype, and more. A few highlights: ⚡LLM use cases, data, and growth LLMs are already helping to solve the “drudgery” aspects of medicine, such as automatically drafting SOAP notes and patient messages. Dr. Butte is excited about future applications of LLMs that can help with the “cognitive” aspects: with difficult medical problems an LLM might be able to stitch together disparate pieces of information to generate a potentially novel solution. He also highlights that prompt engineering will become the next “coding language” as so much of leveraging LLMs is knowing how to ask them the right questions. Additionally, Dr. Butte discusses how since 2016, UCSF has been working to deidentify its patient notes so that it can query them to answer clinical questions and ultimately enhance patient care. ⚡The need for patient-facing AI As patients are increasingly able to access their own personal health data in nicely structured formats (e.g., EHRs, wearables), they desperately need more tools to help them interpret and make decisions using that data. Dr. Butte understands that these patient-facing solutions are challenging to get funded but he emphasizes that patients need to receive the benefits of AI sooner. ⚡Evaluating healthcare AI solutions In order to evaluate AI solutions, we often put human specialists – such as medical professionals – on the same tasks. Understanding that specialists often disagree with each other, a significant challenge arises in figuring out how we can evaluate AI considering we can’t just “average” all the specialist opinions. Dr. Butte points out that there still remains a massive gap in AI evaluation tools. Additionally, there are so many organizations that want to have a say in how healthcare AI is regulated that the landscape is uncertain. An awesome conversation with an expert on all things AI meets healthcare. Listen to the full episode below: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wr3643 Apple: https://apple.co/4acwgan

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According to the latest report from Rock Health, digital health funding in Q1 2024 totaled $2.7B across 133 deals, with an average deal size of $20.6M. It doesn’t break out device-related investments, but most medtech founders I meet these days are being forced to chase tiny rounds made up of endless little checks, consuming valuable energy and slowing their progress. The benign neglect of this next generation of diagnostic and therapeutic devices is counterproductive and surprising. Given the crowded virtual care market, for example, I’d expect more such companies would be exploring medtech partnerships, investments or acquisitions that'd enable them to back integrate into delivering sharper, and more differentiated, care and treatment. This is exactly what Maverix Medical is doing from the other direction: Reshaping the entire spectrum of lung cancer care by integrating more advanced + effective approaches to screening and diagnosis, treatment and therapeutics, and even palliative care…And putting it all to work through an innovative provider network. One notable investor exception is Y Combinator partner Surbhi Sarna who’s been backing great teams like Selera Medical (YC W24) doing foundational work on ambitious medical devices. Without more support from investors like her, we’re going to increasingly find ourselves stuck with the incremental portfolio improvements from the incumbents, and that’s just not nearly enough.

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The healthcare landscape is rapidly evolving, driven by advancements in technology and a deeper understanding of patient care. I had the pleasure of speaking with Ambar Bhattacharyya, Co-Managing Partner at Maverick Ventures, on the latest episode of The Full Ratchet. Ambar has partnered with numerous billion-dollar companies like hims & hers, Cityblock Health, Devoted Health, and ConcertAI. His unique journey from rural America to becoming a prominent figure in venture capital offers invaluable insights into the future of healthcare and technology. We discuss his investment strategy at Maverick Ventures, the megatrends shaping healthcare, the impact of AI on the industry, and the importance of integrated care. Ambar also shares his thoughts on the challenges and opportunities in healthcare investment, offering a comprehensive view of what lies ahead. Check out TFR Episode 438 to catch our conversation. You'll be glad you listened.

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Many companies find that navigating the complexities of fundraising can be daunting, but you don't have to do it alone. 📈 2024 Highlights: The number of biotech assets in phase 3 clinical trials has increased compared to 2023. 📊 Trend Over a Decade: Over the past ten years, the number of active biotech products in phase 3 trials has increased fourfold. 🏢 Current Landscape: More than 430 companies are currently funding these trials, reflecting an annual growth rate of 13.7% since 2012 🌟 This growth in late-stage trials is attracting more investment into the biotech sector. Investors are typically more confident in funding companies with advanced clinical assets, leading to potentially higher funding rounds and partnerships Whether you're an investor on the hunt for the next big opportunity or a company in need of funding, this group is here to link you with the right people: https://lnkd.in/ey4v9x3U

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Some great advice in this interview — featuring Jeffry Weinhuff of Visionary Ventures — relevant to all sub-sectors of #medtech. My favorite line is “investment capital is not tuition.” 😂 But the best advice stems from the insight that good exits via IPO or M&A processes with multiple buyers competing for your company require that most medtech companies must prove their value via strong commercial metrics. And doing that takes a lot of time, expertise and money. Plan, hire and raise capital accordingly. At Vensana Capital, our investment process centers on a deep analysis of every aspect of getting a breakthrough medtech innovation to market, no matter what stage of development a company is at today. We like entrepreneurs who believe their innovation can be highly impactful to patients. We love the ones who want to leave no doubt. https://lnkd.in/eDsUqgn6

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Exciting news for startups! California accounts for about 50% of all venture investments. The not-so-secret reason is that non-competes are illegal in California, so engineers at FAANGs can build competitors without fear. Today, the US Federal Trade Commission declared non-compete agreements illegal nationwide. This means that engineers at big tech companies can now leave and build their own companies without fear of violating a non-competes (legacy agreements for executives are still enforceable - talk to your lawyer), this is a step in the right direction for fostering innovation and competition across the country. A variety of big-business groups have vowed to sue to bring non-competes back, but at least for now, they're gone! #startups #innovation #competition #noncompete Official Announcement: https://lnkd.in/gRXUpgDy Impending lawsuit: https://lnkd.in/gqSiVuTd

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🚀 𝐔𝐧𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐔𝐫𝐢 𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐞’𝐬 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬! 🚀 Uri Levine, co-founder of Waze and Moovit, shares invaluable lessons in his book “𝘍𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮, 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.” Key takeaways include the importance of passionately embracing the problem you’re solving, the necessity of customer retention as a marker of product-market fit, and the strategic use of pitch deck slides. He also emphasises the significance of hiring and firing correctly and observing user behaviour to refine your product. These principles can transform your startup journey, ensuring resilience and growth. 🌟 #StartupSuccess #Entrepreneurship #ProductMarketFit #Innovation

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Turn Biotechnologies, one of our portfolio companies, inked a $300m epigenetic reprogramming deal with Korean pharma giant (news in the comment). Founded in 2018 as a spinout from Stanford University, Turn Bio develops epigenetic reprogramming technology aiming to restore optimal gene expression and promote tissue regeneration by tackling aging effects in the epigenome. To achieve that, the company uses a specific cocktail of mRNA transcription factors. In its exclusive global licensing agreement with Korean pharma giant HanAll Biopharma, Turn Bio’s role is to develop multiple epigenetic reprogramming treatments for age-related eye and ear conditions. Ever since LongeVC investment in Turn Bio back in 2022, I’ve been watching the space of RNA therapeutics with interest. I think one of the most important aspects of Turn Bio is eTurna™ delivery platform, addressing the challenge of delivering RNA-based treatments. Delivery is a pain point in all RNA therapeutics. eTurna™ platform is customizable for different types of cargoes and routes of administration, using ionizable lipids that are safer and clear the body quickly. It reduces immunogenicity and enhances delivery efficiency. As Turn Bio co-founder Vittorio Sebastiano said, the power of the company’s technology is its ability to “rejuvenate cells in virtually any organ in the body.” Recently, Turn Bio also received positive feedback from the FDA during an INTERACT meeting regarding their skin rejuvenation therapy, TRN-001 (link in the comments). This puts the company on track to become the first longevity biotech to take cell rejuvenation therapy to clinic! #mRNA #rejuvenation #longevity #agingresearch Image credit: Longevity.Technology

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the KdT podcast is back to unpack the first biotech IPO of 2024 - CG Oncology. in The World in a Grain of Sand, we break down an S1 from a recent biotech IPO and share insights on the science, business models, and financials. in this episode, Cain McClary, MD and Phil Grayeski discuss CG Oncology, and dive into: - the various subtypes of bladder cancer, and one of the most unique standard of care treatment paradigms in oncology, which utilizes a live attenuated virus to treat the disease - supply chain and manufacturing issues that have limited access to SoC therapy in bladder cancer - CG Oncology’s lead (and only) asset, an oncolytic immunotherapy which has delivered impressive complete response data in bladder cancer - challenges and open questions around complex manufacturing, clinical and commercial adoption, and competition for CG’s product - bull vs bear case for the company link to the full episode in the comments.

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