By Haojing Rong and Aimee Raleigh, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC This blog post is the second in a series on key diligence concepts and questions. If you missed the intro blog post yesterday, click here. For this deeper look at pharmacology, we will be focusing on a theoretical small molecule inhibitor and building out the different “clues” to look for as you pull together a PK/PD/efficacy relationship thesis. That said, this post is only scratching the surface of a very expansive space – for those interested in learning more, we link to a handful of resources that may ..read more

By Aimee Raleigh, Principal at Atlas Venture, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC Ever wondered what goes into diligencing a new idea, program, company, or platform? While each diligence is unique and every investor will have their own approach, below are some considerations that may be more “typical” in a diligence. I will emphasize the obvious disclaimer before diving in – this framework is merely meant to be exemplary and there are always nuances and exceptions unique to each diligence. Additionally, for illustrative reasons this is geared towards a single target / product ..read more

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 control almost all forms of cell activity – growth, response to stimuli, adaptation, replication, cell death. At its most fundamental, a signaling pathway is a cascade of activity, whereby a single stimulus triggers a precise sequence, resulting in specific cellular outcomes. An analog for a signaling pathway is the board game “Mouse Trap.” In the game, once ..read more

By Jeb Keiper, CEO of Nimbus Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC Forward Nimbus Therapeutics began 14 years ago.  The premise at the time was that putting computational chemistry in the primary position for new molecule ideation would upend the drug discovery paradigm.  It did just that.  Three best-in-class molecules in the clinic, over $400 million invested and over $4 billion returned to equity holders, all while focused on our mission to design breakthrough medicines for patients.  Fourteen years on, this corporate experiment has gone fa ..read more

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 exploiting its entry points. They don’t use their computers like the rest of us do. While most of us start our workdays by firing up a laptop, clicking a web browser icon and moving through a series of user-friendly, color-coded steps, white hat hackers spend their days looking at black screens strewn with code that seems unintelligible to the untrain ..read more

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 technology will absolutely play a key role in solving some of the biggest healthcare challenges we face today. In fact, it is already doing that by revolutionizing drug discovery, clinical research, and several other aspects of pharmaceutical R&D. The recently published AI Index Annual Report conducted by Stanford University shows that AI investment in drug design ..read more

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 of capital will enable HotSpot to transition into a clinical stage company while supporting further pipeline and platform growth.  Our progress as a company tracks with the success of the entire field of allostery that has included Relay Therapeutics’ demonstration of clinical proof of concept; the acquisition of Vividion Therapeut ..read more

Family Oddball, and a New Class of Safe Oral Autoimmune & Inflammatory Disease Treatment with Blockbuster Potential By Jeb Keiper, CEO of Nimbus Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. On day one of the JPM 2021 conference, CEO Giovanni Caforio of Bristol Myers Squibb – inheritor of Celgene’s former first presenting slot – took the virtual stage to highlight BMS’s biggest new products. At the top of the list was deucravacitinib (née BMS-986165), an allosteric inhibitor of tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) that BMS projected would reach sales of $4B by 2029. This eye-pop ..read more

The startup paradigm for the creation and funding of new biotech companies has evolved enormously over the past two decades. Recently there’s been a pair of articles from Tech VCs about applying alternative models of company creation (here, here) to the world of biotech, so thought it was worth reflecting on the prevailing venture formation landscape and offering up some counterpoints. Back in 2015, I shared my perspective on five changes to the biotech venture model since 2005 – and to a large extent those same dynamics remain at work today. I’ll start with a quick review for context. When I ..read more

This blog was written by Jeb Keiper, CEO of Nimbus Therapeutics LLC, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. It is with great excitement that we at Nimbus are ringing in our 10th birthday this month. It’s been a momentous decade of ups and downs, many of them chronicled in dozens of posts here on LifeSciVC. At 10 years and still going, we’re proud to have reached a milestone that only about 10% of startups achieve. We are using this 10th birthday as a time to look back on how well Nimbus has carried out its founding principles and to look ahead – as we define our vision for how ..read more