Dearest Brazeryens: is b/acc a thing?
[Welcome to Issue Number 48 ofĀ The House Brazeryen, where we break down the latestĀ #startup, #biotech, and #ScientistCEO-related news for you fortnightly, in roughly 5 minutes. Brought to you byĀ Brazen CapitalĀ andĀ brainsurgerydropout.]
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RECAP: The Super Bowl of Biotech
by W. Shawn Carbonell, MD, PhD ā The annual San Francisco biotech mosh pit surrounding the JP Morgan Healthcare conference (aka āJPMā) just wrapped up. No doubt youāve seen the countless JPM photo albums on LinkedIn over the past week.
I like this because it brings nostalgia of how FB used to be 20 years ago. Iād do it too, except I realized I only took videos. So, enjoy this 24 second TikTok (direct link):
BRAZEN BREAKDOWN
Ultimately, JPMālike all hard things (such as trying to start a company from zero based on your own research discoveries in the lab)āis all about the people you surround yourself with.
Shout out to just a handful of the great people we had the opportunity to surround ourselves with last week (in order of appearance):
Mika Eddy, cofounder & CEO, Malama Health (YC S22, Brazen Capital portco)
Ananya Zutshi, cofounder & CEO, Guardian Bio (YC S22, Brazen Capital portco)
Wes Wierson, PhD, cofounder & CEO, LEAH Labs (YC W19)
Katie Pohl, PhD, Healthcare and Life Sciences Analyst, Sixth Street (Brazen Venture Fellow, JRF01)
Julia Moore, cofounder & Managing Partner, Breakout Ventures
Dana Watt, PhD, Partner, Breakout Ventures
Susanna Harris, PhD, Director of Community, Breakout Ventures
Shiv Shodhan, Corp Dev/Biz Ops, Sangamo Therapeutics
Stig Hansen, PhD, cofounder, Carmot Therapeutics and cofounder & CEO, Kimia Therapeutics
VC CORNER: Whatās in Store for 2024
byĀ Scott Alpizar, PhDĀ ā Donāt worry, donāt worry, Iām not going to be making my own predictions again. Though I do want to revisit those and see how I did eventuallyājust need to wait and see the 2023 data in the areas I mentioned. Instead, I figured it could be productive to share some predictions for this year that Iāve seen from others!
BRAZEN BREAKDOWN
Iāve sifted through whatās landed in my inbox or LinkedIn feed over the last couple of weeks and have boiled things down to three main takeaways:
Artificial Intelligence. AIās application to the life sciences is not new, but is something that is going to become increasingly more common. More companies are starting to experiment with building use cases and exploring how to automate their processes or enhance supply chains. Biopharma is embracing AI strategies for drug development. However, there are controls needed (as someone who doesnāt want to see the machines take over, I agree). Governance around AIās use is being adopted more widely too.
Interestingly, AI is also being applied to business development for big pharma companies, filling gaps in internal development by trying to acquire AI-first biotechs. If thatās you, you may be a hot commodity before you know it.
The Impact of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Thereās been constant controversy around the Inflation Reduction Act and how itās drug pricing provisions will impact stakeholders. Drug pricing is top of mind and expected to impact the industry heavily, especially in some of the hottest areas of developmentācell and gene therapy, oncology, and rare diseases.
Drugs in those areas are often higher priced as well, so there needs to be a clear solution to prevent major disruptions and potentially leave some of the most suffering people at risk. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to change any time soon.
Partnering for Innovation. With the IRA disincentivizing the staging of indications and eliminating ārare-to-commonā strategies, it is believed that big pharma companies may pivot to exploring more partnerships with smaller biotech companies to reach their goals versus expanding their development internally.
If this is the case, which it certainly looks like it will be for AI as mentioned above, there may be more creative deal structures needed to unlock the value. One of the best pieces of advice that I saw was to be open to these creative structures as youāre negotiating deals, especially in the current economic climate.
ā¦
Hopefully this summary helps you orient yourself to where the industry may be heading. Keeping all of this in mind when strategizing your own companyās plan for the year can help you keep pace with the rest of the industry (and your competition). And if the positive sentiments that Iāve seen out of JPM last week are any indication, biotech will hopefully be in for a good year!
š BRAZEN THOUGHTS
āThe thing I have noticed is when the anecdotes and the data disagree, the anecdotes are usually right. There's something wrong with the way you are measuring it.ā
āJeff Bezos
š BRAZEN 411
Amgen Golden Ticket [DEADLINE: 01FEB2024]. Christmas came early/lateā¦ which biotech startup wants a FREE LAB BENCH in Los Angeles?
IndieBio NYC Demo Day [24JAN2024]. Who doesnāt want to see the pitch from a startup named āBioMetallicaā? Lars Ulrich calling his lawyers rnā¦
The RAR Studio Founder Bootcamp [DEADLINE: 01FEB2024]. āFREE 5-week program for folks who identify as women and have an early stage venture.ā
Community Health Incubator [DEADLINE: 01FEB2024]. Brazen Capital portcoāMalama Healthāis an alum of this fully-funded program by SeedSpot.
š BRAZEN SNAX
š¤ First ever ChatGPT-facilitated research article published in JAMA?
š Shooting the shit with new NIH Boss who replaced Francis Collins
š¼ A very milktoast review of geroscience avoiding the word ālongevityā
š° Become an LP in Brazen Capital! Help support scientist-CEOs!!!
šŖ Stories of 11 people who operated on themselves (some successfully)
āš½ 38 questions to ask during a job interview to show you read HBR
ā° TikTokCrak:Ā Psychology of the āsituationshipā explained in 52 secs
šŖ CARVEOUT
A book that we had initial doubts aboutābecause what the fuck does a 31 year old marketing guy with a podcast knowābut now think is one of the best books of 2023: The Diary of a CEO by Stephen Bartlett. Life changer. Prove me wrong.
šš½ A DOSE OF GRATITUDE
We are grateful for a less moist version of JPM this year. š„¹
š BRAZEN MEME
āļø FEEDBACK
Leave a comment and letās continue the conversation on X:Ā @brazencapital