WTM Bulletin #6: From Wall Street to Care Street. Latest news in Health Care VC, PE, and care delivery. Innovation. Transformation.
As a former Citigroup investment banker and economist turn Medical Doctor, entrepreneur, consultant, and investor, I see health care evolve and transform through a very unique lens.
Sitting at the intersection of health, technology, and business with functional roles as an executive in strategy, partnerships, and innovation, I’m eager to share my weekly findings with you, my growing audience worldwide.
6 links = 3 headlines. 2 startup or VC/PE firm news. 1 closing thought. Or some combination there of. You can also find me on twitter @Mahek_MD .
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Headlines:
1) Massachusetts-based Upstream Bio raised $200M in Series A funding to develop antibody therapy for severe asthma treatment.
OrbiMed and Maruho Co co-led the funding round with backing from Access Biotechnology, Decheng Capital, HBM Healthcare Investments, TCG X, Omega Funds, and others. A great female-led CEO and management team.
Clinical-stage program UPB-101 targets the TSLP receptor, a cytokine receptor positioned upstream in the inflammatory cascade with the potential to impact multiple diseases, including asthma
Pipeline growth strategy includes pursuing UPB-101 in multiple diseases and acquiring additional drug candidates
Upstream Bio aims to tackle at the root causes for inflammatory and allergic diseases. This is part of the revolution in biology where we’re no longer tackling just symptom management but through science we can treat disease at the source, or edit the genome to cure a disease, or alter a cell to convert from an abnormal to a normal cell. Lifesaving and more importantly, life-changing treatments.
2) Ban has prevented 2 million surprise medical bills so far, insurers say
Axios reports that the surprise medical bill act has been effective. Why it matters: Insurers, providers and employers are waiting for the Biden administration to lay out a new arbitration process for settling payment disputes after a federal judge tossed out a proposed fix in late February.
Checkout the full report here.
3) The future of birth control: Male contraceptive gels, “night-before” pills that disrupt ovulation, and the brave future of human contraception.
With recent events such as the Supreme Court’s leak of Roe V. Wade, Oklahoma’s bad decision to ban all abortions effectively, and continued controversy on government intervening in women’s choice of what to do with her own body, a lot of innovation has been happening at the contraception stage. This is interesting to me because we are actually facing some macro trends that have dramatic social and human impact: women desiring to have families later in life because they are focusing on their careers, the growing business of egg freezing or even embryo freezing, less sexual activity on the whole due to youth being entertained by media, social media, gaming, etc versus engaging and interacting with other humans, and lower birth rates. In fact, in California recently, more people died than were born!
4) Watch a robotic shoulder practice twisting and stretching human cells [BONUS HEADLINE]
Humanoid robots can encourage human tendon cells to grow by stretching them in the same way people do when moving.
A robotic shoulder that stretches, presses, and twists lab-grown human tendon tissue could pave the way for more successful tissue grafts.
Though the field of tissue engineering is still mostly experimental, skin cells, cartilage, from samples of human cells have been implanted in patients so far.
But growing human tendon cells — which need to stretch and twist — has proved trickier. Over the past 20 years, scientists have encouraged engineered tendon cells and tissue to grow and mature by repeatedly stretching them in one direction. However, this approach has so far failed to produce fully functional tissue grafts that could be used clinically, in human bodies.
A new study, published in Communications Engineering May 26th 2022, shows how humanoid robots could be used to make engineered tendon tissue that is more like the real thing.
Venture Capital / Private Equity
Instead of profiling a specific VC or PE firm this week, I found this recent Crunchbase headline compelling because in these volatile times, it’s important to gain perspective on the industry. The VC Reset: May 2022 Funding Falls Again, But Not At Every Stage.
Late stage and technology growth stage funding has experienced the most significant pull backs but seed stage and angel funding has remained resilient. To put it to you in numbers: November 2021 had $70B in global funding for venture backed companies (seed, venture, PE) down to $39B this May 2022. This is partly due to the fact that these investments will take longer to see an exit but also because fundamentally, venture capital invests in the future.
Seed funding was the most robust funding stage last month, with $3.1 billion invested in seed-stage companies last month. Seed funding increased 11% from the average $2.8 billion invested monthly at seed in 2021.
But the great timing in market valuation resets is that investors and firms that closed recent funding rounds have the ability to unload that capital into the best companies, founders, at dramatically lower prices.
Closing Thoughts
Over the next 10 years, these areas are some of the most exciting for me to think about, invest in, and discuss with colleagues:
- CRISPR applications and other gene therapies
- Cell-based therapies
- Climate change B2B software
- Hybrid health care delivery (Virtual + B&M + asynchronous engagement)
- Digital health super-app (combination of the point solutions)
- Convenient Care (Retail-like) connected to our Food as Medicine (we are what we eat). CVS/Minute Clinic or Village MD/Walgreens meets Whole Foods/Trader Joes… maybe that is Amazon Care 3.0?!?
[Spoiler Alert: a post will be on this very topic very soon.] - Leveraging our Gut-Brain axis and the microbiome and gut health to address autoimmune and inflammatory conditions (IBD, Psoriasis, Eczema, RA)
- Space Medicine: leverage zero-gravity or very little gravity to accelerate healing, create new delivery mechanisms for therapies, etc for mankind.
Disclaimer: The information presented here does not serve as investment advice. This is for informational purposes only.
Please clap below and feel free to leave a comment and feedback in the comments section below. I read every one of them personally and always enjoy hearing from my audience what you like, don’t like, would like to see more of, less of, etc. We only improve with feedback loops.
You can also find me on twitter @Mahek_MD .
