1/ A physician-scientist recently told me he was starting a company “to complete ‘the impact arc’—going from bench to bedside…to worldwide.”
We’re thrilled to announce @a16z’s Bio Fund 4: $1.5B to back founders building the future of bio + health. a16z.com/2022/01/07/9b-… 2/ From mRNA covid vaccines developed in record time, to gene editing “cures” for rare diseases, we’re witnessing the real-time rise of programmable medicines—the bits of engineered biology (genes, cells, even microbes) that will redefine medicine.a16z.com/2019/02/07/wha…

1/ Biotech can be a battle. How do bio startups choose when to go-it-alone vs when to partner? And what should you hope for (and avoid) in a deal?

@JayRughani & I offer a biotech BD 101 guide for finding your Platform-Partnership Fit (PPF)
🧵👇
future.a16z.com/guide-to-busin… 2/ How do you shape a deal? First, understand both what the other party wants + what you need.

Your partners want to keep their pipelines hydrated w/ promising drug candidates + tech

They offer you validation + resources

They’re buying innovation; you’re *absorbing expertise*

Thanks for joining @a16z bio on @joinClubhouse!

We talked about biotech’s beginnings. The closest thing we have to a Hewlett-Packard ‘two-guys-in-a-garage’ origin story is Robert Swanson & Herb Boyer teaming up to create Genentech.

A short reading list on biotech history 📚🧵👇

https://twitter.com/JorgeCondeBio/status/1356315231048192000

Genentech: The Beginnings of Biotech. Tells the story from the company’s founding in South San Francisco through its scientific triumphs, IPO and eventual acquisition. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book…

1/ Biotech is a tough business.

There are 10,000+ human diseases out there. How do startups w/ promising platforms choose where to focus?

Choose wisely. @andy23tran @a16z & I offer a framework for finding your Platform-Disease Fit (PDF)
🧵👇

a16z.com/2021/01/08/pla… 2/ Finding PDF early in life is essential to success.

Your first disease tends to become your adjective: “Acme Co, a cancer company…”.

So what funnel criteria do you use?

1/ Engineered biology (like cell + gene therapy) is a powerful tool for TREATING disease. What if biology could be engineered to FIND disease too?

In 2018 I met @Cyriac1 Roeding & Sam Ghambir, a pioneer in early cancer detection. Their company, Earli, proposed to do just that. 2/ Earli’s mission is to detect cancer early so it can be treated.

As a leading cancer physician, and father to a child that succumbed to the disease, it was a deeply personal mission for Sam.

@GoEarli is a testament to his life’s work.

stanmed.stanford.edu/2016fall/milan…

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.

1/ “The price of a drug should never be the rate-limiting factor to patient access.” — Alexis Borisy, EQRx CEO. @EQRxINC raises $500 million Series B in service of their mission to bring important new medicines to society at radically lower prices.

eqrx.com/press-release/… 2/ The Series B investor syndicate includes life science specialists, mutual funds and other generalist funds—as well as payers + health systems that cover more than 20% of insured lives in the US.

1/ Another big day for COVID-19 vaccines! FDA panel votes to recommend emergency use authorization for Moderna’s mRNA vaccine.

@Moderna_tx CEO @Sbancel shares HOW they made a vaccine *in less than a year* w/ me + @omnivorousread on @a16z Bio Eats World

a16z.com/2020/12/18/mod… 2/ Within 48 hrs(!) of having a digital copy of the virus genome, Moderna designed a vaccine - the exact version now being shipped - without having access to the physical virus.

This is *the machine that made the vaccine*

We used to grow our vaccines; now we can print them.

1/ Recently $NVS announced a $2.1m gene therapy, the most expensive medicine in history. Gene therapies are potentially curative. How should we price them? How will we pay for them? Could a cure be considered a pre-existing condition? 🧬 💊
a16z.com/2019/05/30/cur… 2/ Rare disease therapies are expensive because: i) they treat devastating diseases, ii) patient pops are small, so biopharma recoups R&D investment w/ high price, iii) payors tolerate because limited risk of many patients in a given plan + limited # of new therapies to cover.

1/ A thought for early-stage bio companies on the eve of the upcoming #JPM19 networking bonanza in SF: Bio entrepreneurs, especially first-time founders, often underestimate the importance of analyzing and selecting potential disease areas
(thread 👇) 2/ Your resources are (probably) finite. Your platform may have broad potential but if your goal is to develop therapeutics (Tx) or diagnostics (Dx), you need a rigorous process/framework for selecting disease indications. It should be an early core competency for your company

1/ Check out my talk from this year’s @a16z Summit, where I give a brief overview on the future of medicine. CliffsNotes thread 👇

https://twitter.com/a16z/status/1076642647291224064

2/ Our earliest medicines were discovered in nature; later, we learned to use tools like chemistry to develop our own novel molecules; and when we couldn’t synthesize complex proteins ourselves (like insulin), we harnessed biotechnology to coax bacteria to produce them for us