How to Build a Biotech

The Summer of 2019, I gave a series of lectures to Longevity Fund’s Venture Fellows on the basics of building a biotechnology company. This is the write up of those lectures, with some additions by Laura Deming & myself.

First Steps

You’re intrigued by biotech and want to explore ideas in the area. Where do you start?

Ideation, indication, and modality selection in early-stage biotech

Academic vs. Start Up Training

Choosing which disease to target

How I Think About Risk

Raising Money

Science is expensive! One way to fund your work is to get venture capital (VC) investment. It’s a very different process from applying for an academic research grant.

There are a lot of excellent resources out there on raising capital.* Because of this I’ve focused here on “SF style” biotech investing, and the areas where the advice for a bio company differs from that of a tech company.

VC for Bio 101

Biotech investment memos

*Marc Andreessen’s guide to startups, the PG essays, and Venture Deals are three classics

Building in Bio

A bit of a deeper dive into the predominant types of drugs and the considerations around each of them. The type of drug you select impacts the safety, dosing strategy, potential efficacy, downstream price & profit margin, and competitiveness of your drug.

An overview of preclinical drug development

Drug Type Primers

The Cost of Science

Working in the Lab

What are Your Key Bets?

Basics of Life Science Patents

Biotech Org Structure

Being a Skeptical Optimist

Building Your Team

Exits in Bio

Regulation and Clinical Trials

Before you can sell your drug, you have to clear a number of regulatory hurdles, including filing for permission to test your drug in people and conducting a number of well designed clinical trials to prove that your drug is safe and works.