Thread by @JorgeCondeBio

1/ Platforms are the geese that lay the golden eggs of biotech: blockbuster drugs. Yet most platforms produce few, if any, eggs. 🥚

But fertile geese are coming. 🦆

@heyjudka @a16z and I explore how productive platforms will transform biotech. 🧵 👇

a16z.com/2021/01/08/bio…

2/ Biotech has historically had a multi-armed bandit problem.

Spend each incremental dollar feeding the goose? Or invest it in incubating a golden egg?

Companies tend to starve their platform in order to nurture a potential product.

3/ But a new wave of productive platforms changes that calculus.

The shift from bespoke craftsmanship to industrialized drug development will transform what we can make, how (and how fast) we make it, and how the industry is structured.

4/ These industrialized platforms are built on powerful technologies—biological engineering, AI—that give us enhanced superpowers:

to *interrogate* dark corners of biology,

to *intervene* against disease w/ programmable medicines.

5/ This is biotech’s industrial age. With upfront platform investments, benefits accrue and compound to “stamp out” better processes + products over time.

These platforms are the foundation on which many future applications—therapeutics, diagnostics—will be built.

6/ We’ve seen the benefits of industrialization. @illumina enabled interrogation at scale—to decode entire genomes virtually overnight. Now we’re seeing the rise of intervention platforms: @moderna_tx built a machine that designed an mRNA vaccine in 48hrs.
a16z.com/2020/12/18/mod…

7/ Industrialized platforms support multiple models:

Vertical integration—build a machine to make products at increasing speed, scale + sophistication.

Horizontal infrastructure—build components, capabilities + interfaces to power many machines: the API economy for bio.

8/ So if you’re a platform company, which do you choose—vertical or horizontal? Traditionally you would nurture your own golden eggs.

But that’s not the only path. Maximizing value may mean providing the picks and shovels to the gold rush.

9/ For vertical players: What’s the value of integration; is the whole greater than the sum of its parts?

Is there compounding potential for products where v3.0 is built on the foundations of v2.0?

Is there a single, super valuable vertical that dwarfs other applications?

10/ For horizontal players: What is the breadth of your platform (who needs your widgets)?

How critical is your cog for powering machines (how valuable are your widgets)?

How do you prove your technology works (when are your widgets validated)?

11/ Vertical: @TmunityTx, Lyell fully-integrated to focus on complex CAR T engineering + manufacturing processes.

Horizontal: @adimab @AbCelleraBio (antibody optimization), @Dyno_Tx @AcuitasLLC (DNA/RNA delivery) sell critical components/capabilities broadly across industry.

12/ If biology has taught us anything, it’s that rich ecosystems support multiple winners—and that models evolve.

So this is about where to start, and how to win, not where you’ll end. The journey is treacherous—put your eggs in the right baskets.
🥚🧺
a16z.com/2021/01/08/bio…