Looking at Life Sciences Investment Landscape

and alleviating cognitive disorders. Well, it does feel like overall, Tim, a lot is brewing when it comes to disruption and innovation in the healthcare and life sciences space. And our next guest company invest in growth stage life sciences technology companies. So let's get to it. Michelle dip is co founder and a managing partner of Biospring Partners. As Carol mentioned, it's a it's a company that invests in growth stage life sciences and tech companies. Michelle joins us via zoom

from New York City. Michelle, how are you. I'm doing really well. Thank you so much, Tim, and thanks to you, Carol. I'm so happy to be with you today. It's really incredible because we've approached life sciences investments from a few different areas. We've talked about it on Bloomberg Bus this week a lot when it comes to real estate, because it's one area of corporate real estate that's actually booming

right now. And I'm wondering, from your perspective, what are the trends that you're seeing right now when it comes to investing in these types of companies. Yeah. Absolutely, I mean we're really excited by the way that technology is completely changing and of course improving healthcare. Um. Really, the three main themes that we're looking at right now is ways that technology is improving R and D or research and development. The second way is manufacturing, and the third,

of course is delivery of healthcare. I think a lot of us have maybe even use telemedicine in the last couple of years during the pandemic. Yeah, I gotta say I have. And what a treat because when you think about sometimes you just can't get to the office, and sometimes it's over something little that maybe you don't need some kind of exam or what have you. Um, and it's just amazing what can be done. UM. Having said that, UM, you talk about technology improving R and D, what specifically,

what are the kind of companies that you're looking for. Yeah. Absolutely, I mean we're looking for companies frankly that are using genomics to UM change R and D and oftentimes what they're doing is they're improving the efficiency of clinical trials. So you probably know the human genome was sequenced over twenty years ago and we were all waiting for a tools revolution to come because of that, and it didn't happen because we really needed the cost of genome sequencing

to decline. We also needed to be much faster than it had been once it was discovered. But now we're using genomics to diagnose and treat diseases like cancer. You know, ten years ago we used to talk about lung cancer in terms of small cell non small cell. Now it's characterized by using about thirty genetic mutations. So it's really just changed tremendously, and so you know what does that mean for patients. It means more accurate diagnosis, earlier treatment,

better prognosis. So we're specifically focused on companies UM that are using uh, you know, software, machine learning and genomics. It just like you know, we talked about this UM Michelle, but the personalization of medicine, and we you know, we've talked about it certainly on air when it comes to autism, right, there is we know this a spectrum, but that is true too for some major diseases. It's not you know, a cookie cutter, uh, you know way of treating people,

especially when it comes to cancer. It's all kind of very, very different and needs to be in many cases kind of catered to the individual. You're absolutely right, and that's something that we're only just now starting to tease out and the human genome has just really elucidated a lot

of that. And it's important, right because, Um, it means that you know, to your point in terms of an autism spectrum, for other diseases as well, it may completely change the type of treatment that you get, uh number one. Number two, of course, you can diagnose much earlier. Hey, Michelle. Um, we've talked a lot about telemedicine and technology changing the

way that people experience healthcare. But I do wonder about what this all means for a consumer from a consumer perspective, because I think people over the last couple of years, they've gotten used to speaking with doctors either smartphones, but there are still doctors that you have to visit in person, Like I can't imagine ever going to the dentist virtually. Um, but I'm wondering what this looks like years from now. I mean, could we go to the dentist virtually, Well,

that's a great question. Um, I'm not sure about the dentist specifically, go to the dentist in the metaverse? There you go. I mean that you probably need someone much higher tech than than me to talk about the metaverse, that's for sure. But um, you know, one of the things that we've heard you might have seen. The HHS, you know, did a study specifically on telemedicine, and they said that the use of telemedicine rose by sixty three

times during the pandemic. So one of the things that people are looking out for is does that actually reverse or decline now that, um, you know, the COVID pandemic seems to be under control. Um, certainly there are all kinds of new ways to use technology. I mean you probably mean we're using zoom right now. I mean this was, um, you know, not something that we would typically use in the medical world, but certainly it's being used for dermatology

trials for example. So a dermatologist can pretty easily diagnose something, um you know, via Zoom or um you know, using another telemedicine type platform. The other thing that's being used more and more is of course wearables. Right, so now you can track all kinds of things from heart rate right the way through to atrial fibrillation. Other things can

be diagnosed. And so while it may not be I mean, clearly some diseases need surgery and so that's not going to be something that's going to be possible through tele telemedicine, but certainly diagnosis is going to be a key area UM that will certainly you know, has already been advanced and certainly will continue to. We want to get back to Michelle Dips. She's co founder managing partner of the

venture capital firm Biospring Partner. She is still with us on Zoom from right here in New York City, and you had a question do you want to go? Yeah, Michelle, We we talked to venture capitalists right and they're thinking about okay, cloud technology or cybersecurity, and they're making bets on companies that can help protect other companies from hackers. Uh. We know that that technology is needed and that technology exists, and it's still a challenge for them because they have to,

you know, bet on the right horse. But I feel like when it comes to growth stage life sciences technology companies, it's it's kind of a different animal. It seems, you know, a little bit harder to to try to make a bet on something that might not even have proven technology at this point. Can you take us through how you how you separate the good companies from the ones that

you pass on? Sure? Absolutely so. One of the one of the things that we do is we try to identify themes that we think will be long term and durable, and then within those themes, we actually get to know our companies for a number of years before investing in them.

So it's a little bit less riskier, you know, as you're you point out, it's very hard to determine whether or not a fundamental technology is going to work or not, so we actually typically wait a little bit um for there to be a little a bit more proofd So we're looking for long term, durable themes. We invest in services, tools and software. We invest in companies that already have a customer base, and we're looking for things like customer

uptape customer diversification, revenue diversification. We want those companies to have ten million of top line revenue or more. They're typically growing by top line by or more, and there's a path to profitability. Hey, Michelle, what do you think is driving innovation in the life sciences UM space and life sciences technology? Is it cost? Is it efficiency? Is it access? Is it true innovation? Is it better modalities

of treatment? Like? What is it? Because you know, life sciences, healthcare, that whole community, it's pretty entrenched, right, It's quite an infrastructure that's there. And I'm not saying that they not open to innovation, but I do wonder what will ultimately drive the innovation and what will determine kind of where these investment dollars go. Yeah, that is just an excellent question. And you know, really it's a combination of all of

those things. But you probably have heard these numbers, especially given COVID pharmaceutical companies spend about two hundred billion a year on research and development. That two hundred dollars spend is growing at about a three to four percent cager, and so anything that they can do to improve efficiencies

is something that they're you know, really focused on. So if you can improve, for example, um, the efficiency of your clinical trial or the effectiveness of your clinical trial, you're going to use that technology to help you do that. You know. One of the companies that were invested in is called path Ai. They use software, machine learning, and

AI to scan a biopsy slide. So it's probably obvious to you that instead of doing that manually, right, you can use software and then it'll be you know, more accurate, more effective, and of course it's a lot cheaper and faster. All of that translates into a more effective clinical trial. They sell that as a service to pharmaceutical companies who then better place patients into a clinical trial. Arm But all of those things matter. It has to be accurate.

It also needs to be faster and cheaper, So being better isn't enough anymore. It also needs to translate into dollars saved. How do we prevent another therapness from happening? Good question? You know, that is a good question. UM. I actually never met Pharaonis and I don't even know another healthcare firm who has UM. I think many of us really go through a pretty rigorous diligence process. UM.

You know, certainly at biospring. I mean, we're focused on diligence NG first and foremost the technology, the service or the product. UM. Of course you are looking at market competition, UM, the team, the business model, the commercial model, the financials, and and you're looking for audited financials as well. So I think that UM, those firms who are going through those you know, typical diligence processes and are looking for audited financials prior to investing in companies, UM, you know,

are usually pretty well protected. Can you give us an example of a company that you passed on that you regret passing on and why you passed on it? Oh? Boy, that's a go I'd love to ask capitalists this question. Unfortunately, only about thirty second I was like this, Dimond's actually flown. Yeah, absolutely, so, UM, you know, there was a company out there, and one of the reasons that we passed on it it was

just way too early in terms of revenues. And I think a lot of us do that where it doesn't quite fit our investment criteria and so UM, and they're just not there yet. And then of course you wait too long and then the company you know, completely takes off, and so UM, I mean, you know, I can certainly give you ten examples of where you know we waited too long for the for the proof to be there in mix Cele Well, this was a pleasure. Stay in touch.

We'd love to hear about future investments. Michelle dipp, co founder managing partner of the venture capital firm Biospring Partners, joining us on zoom right here in New York City. You know these VC websites they always have like the companies that they've invested in, but you never hear about the ones they pass on. So I love ask him no, it's an interesting take right like and understand how they do it.