I. What changes - news to watch this week

The current state of venture capital (VC) fundraising in the life sciences sector in 2024

Greg Bisconti’s recent post on Linkedin has made a detailed report on the current state of venture capital (VC) fundraising in the life sciences sector in 2024. Before I summarize the post into five key takeaways, let me give you a detailed look of each of the BIGGG life science VCs you see in the figure above.

Five Key Takeaways

1. Strong VC Fundraising in Life Sciences

   Life sciences VCs have raised $10.3 billion so far in 2024, making it the second-highest annual raise on record. Despite challenges in the sector, there is a significant amount of “dry powder” (capital waiting to be invested), and firms remain optimistic about the future.

2. Rising Costs Across the Biotech Sector

   Inflation has significantly increased costs in all areas of drug development, including R&D, talent, trials, and manufacturing. Costs are now 150-200% higher compared to pre-pandemic levels, making it more expensive to run a biotech company.

3. Selective Capital and “Megarounds”

   The rising cost of capital has led to more selective investments, with an increase in “megarounds” (investments of $100 million or more). This has widened the gap between well-funded companies and those struggling to raise capital.

4. Post-Election Optimism

   The essay anticipates that after the U.S. election cycle, there will be greater clarity on the economic and regulatory environment, which could encourage more capital deployment. This would boost confidence among founders and early-stage companies, driving further growth in the sector.

5. Call to Engage

   The author invites readers to share their thoughts on the research and the current state of the industry, encouraging dialogue on the sector’s trajectory.If you look at the Board Members and the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of Cerevel, you don’t only see scientists specialized in CNS disorders but also investment partners in the industry, including Nicolas Thomopoulos, Former Chief Financial Officer at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a company that is valued at $85 Billion.

Read more about the exit strategy of biotech companies here.

II. What never changes - timeless wisdom

 🪐 Stars, life, and experience

When you look up at the sky, you see all the stars shining. But what if I told you that the stars you see are actually images of them from light-years ago? The stars you are looking at are not where they are now, nor do they appear as they currently do. Because the stars are, or were, very far away from us, the light emitted from them takes light-years to reach us, traveling at the speed of light, which is approximately 300,000 kilometers per second.

Let me help you grasp this idea. Imagine I just published a website right now. However, your network speed is so slow that it would take two years for you to load the website. So, when you finally see my website, two years later, the website you loaded would not be the most updated version. It is the same with the stars you see—there is a lag.

If the Mayas, the Aztecs, or our ancient civilizations that took so much information from the stars knew that the stars they saw were actually images from light-years ago, would that make the stars or the messages they received from them any less significant?

Imagine if there were a time lag in our surrounding experiences—would that set your mind spinning? What if the environment, interactions, and experiences surrounding us had already happened ages ago? It just takes time to reach us, just like the light from the stars. We, as the bodies and mediums who experience these things, are the ones who are behind. What happened has already happened. What will happen has already happened. What is happening has also already happened.

As a startup founder, I’ve always believed that having related experience is an advantage because only after you’ve seen it do you realize it’s manageable. For instance, having met and worked with people at the #1 law firm for IPOs in the U.S., Cooley LLP, I no longer view taking a company public—offering an IPO—as a daunting task. I still remember seeing the Korean manager, a friend of my former boss, at the San Diego branch office with more than thirty bottles of Red Bull on the table. While I don’t recall the technical details, these exchanges and experiences instilled in me the spirit and courage to bring my future companies public. However, for my current team or friends who haven’t had this first-hand experience, it might be difficult to convey this perspective. To them, taking a company to IPO might seem as unfamiliar as traveling to Mars.

Continue reading here…

III. Book Quotes

Here are some book quotes for you to ponder over the weekend.

Thanks for reading,

— Anthony