Hi. This is pretty early for this, but I’m looking for some advice for starting a seed fund to advance early-stage startups in cancer immunotherapy. It’s not for me, but someone whom I did some machine learning work, and angel investment with. He’s one of the top names in the field from the early days of cloning to today, veteran of several biotech startups, and likely recent Nobel and Lasker winner advising. There’s a lot we don’t know about the financial side, and I’m trying to figure out whether this is feasible, and what the plan should be. Thanks!
Lots of variables but it probably is feasible depending on 4 factors:
1) Sourcing.
how many viable cancer immunotherapy startups are there
2) Due diligence
how good are you at separating the wheat from the chaff
3) Competition
how much seed investment are they receiving vs how much they require, it does sound like a niche market
4) Strategy what are the timeframes involved, when do you get to “realize” your investment, riding them out to IPO?, etc
5) how will you accelerate their growth, contacts, help them with their own strategy etc...
Now these factors play into the success of the fund in their interactions. Example 1 and 2 are not ideal but 3 is a situation with little competition, you might be able to get better deals more equity.
Obviously a lot of domain knowledge is required but
if you are able to address these 5 things satisfactorily then you might easily find money chasing you.
After that it’s just coming up with a good investment structure (ex. certain international investors seek tax sheltering), some lawyers and choosing limited partners. Shouldn’t be too hard especially given the level and recognition this gentleman should command in his industry.
Noble goal, and I’d suggest the book Basic Immunology, but I’d also warn you, cancer might be a famously difficult disease, but the number of treatments is vast, thus it is difficult to market a new one, because oncologists are overwhelmed by options. There’s an idea for your ML buddy: just imagine rather than make new treatments, you could help docs pick existing treatments from the sea of complex options...
I personally read Janeway in 2014 when I learned about the problem and started helping with ML models. But the fund isn't mine; it will be run by the leader in the field. He's already heavily invested in a nonprofit that provides physicians and patients with information about leading-edge therapies: https://www.ucir.org/.
I am relatively new to the cancer IO space, but unless you discovered a new check-point idea (e.g., TIGIT) a lot of the ideas are flushed out already. If you're thinking cell-therapy, there are a number of autologous ideas already on CMC for p1 testing. If you're trying to make TILs angry, or modulate M1/M2 CD11b macrophages, anything that requires transcriptional re-programming, you have a lot of catching up to do.
Most of the stuff you mention here is more biological, which is outside of my full understanding as an ML hobbyist in the area (not my fund, just helping). There is some low-hanging fruit in the portfolio like an improved ligand for an existing checkpoint target. I worked mostly on predicting ligands to stimulate the HLA->APC->TCR->proliferation pathway, mostly using data from binding assays and HPLC/MS isolation. There is a lot just on the computational side that is required to apply well-known vaccination methods to cancer. For seed startups, I'd think it's more likely to find fundable companies making progress on improving the application of existing leading-edge methods than attempting entirely new approaches. CAR-T comes to mind as a prohibitively expensive therapy that invites approaches to reduce cost and improve access, which gives them a simpler path to commercialization than starting with the FDA from scratch. Again, not the expert, not my fund, so I can't comment on the need to catch up, but the people I'm trying to help are some of the luminaries in the field, so I don't think unfamiliarity is the major roadblock; it's more a matter of whether their time is best spent on this or on research.
If you are interested, I can connect you with a consultant in the field who works with VCs and young biotechs. Really great to work with and if he can't help you out, I am sure he knows someone who can help you.
