How are you supposed to start a biotech company without a bunch of fat checks from venture capital firms?
Entrepreneurs are wondering about that as quite a few early-stage biotech VCs have gone the way of the dodo bird. There’s no shortage of exciting advancements in biomedical research, and lots of patients with diseases that need better treatment. But it’s gotten harder for investors to justify the time and expense of building biotech companies to make valuable new healthcare products, as rewards from IPOs and acquisitions often don’t justify the risk.
Those dynamics have forced entrepreneurs and VCs to rethink the business models for biotech, and we at Xconomy are excited to bring together some of the thought leaders looking to solve this problem. This event, called “Reinventing Biotech’s Business Model, San Francisco Style,” will bring together a stellar lineup of 15 speakers for an afternoon conference Oct. 16 at Onyx Pharmaceuticals in South San Francisco. I’ll plan to moderate a series of interviews and chats, getting the speakers to open up and talk about how they are adjusting their business models to attract investors and create valuable new products.
Here’s who you can expect to hear from, in alphabetical order:
Brian Atwood, Managing Director, Versant Ventures
Robert Blum, CEO, Cytokinetics
Tony Coles, CEO, Onyx Pharmaceuticals
Jens Eckstein, President, SR One
Mark Goldsmith, CEO, Global Blood Therapeutics; Venture Partner, Third Rock Ventures
JC Gutierrez-Ramos, Senior Vice President, Pfizer
Steve Kaldor, CEO, Quanticel; Venture Partner, Versant Ventures
Diego Miralles, Head of West Coast research center, Janssen Labs
Mike Morrissey, CEO, Exelixis
Clare Ozawa, Chief Business Officer, Inception Sciences
Deepa Pakianathan, General Partner, Delphi Ventures
James Sabry, VP of Partnering, Genentech
Risa Stack, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Peter Thompson, Venture Partner, OrbiMed Advisors
Daphne Zohar, Founder/Managing Partner, Puretech Ventures
This is the best time to get tickets, because Thursday (Sept. 13) will be the last chance to get them at the early-bird discounted rate. We also have discounted tickets available for students, and for employees at startup companies that are less than three years old.
This event, like all the ones we do, will feature time for Q&A between the speakers and the audience, and time for networking at the beginning, middle, and end. For me, it’s also a great time to get to meet a lot of readers in person. I look forward to seeing quite a few of you there at Onyx on Oct. 16.
