| DEALFLOWUPDATE Issue #33. Friday, May 31 Hello Everyone, Previously, we have been highlighting the greater increase in activity within our interest areas of new startups, financing, acquisitions and strategic moves by large companies. This edition again explores this increase in activity while looking at innovations in liquid biopsies, immunotherapy, mental stimulation and treatment, and directed energy. -Neal If this is your first issue, please subscribe and consider sharing with others. Additionally, we welcome news from our readers, if you’re up to something interesting, let us know. Email chad@zoiccapital.com |
Dealflow The Starting Block: Early Detection Diagnostics We have seen several companies in the liquid biopsy space, both in this newsletter and in our own deal flow. This is the field of diagnosing conditions, specifically cancer, early on with only a blood sample. This is starting to be a growing and crowded space, with another recent entry into the fray from a major venture group. These companies all face the same issues of proving their tests work with lengthy clinical trials and possible regulatory routes. It can be worth it if the technology works, but we feel it is still essential to building additional barriers through hardware IP that we have not seen in these companies. This is especially the case with this field, as the only competitive advantage one company seems to have over another is a software process, or in the amount of data collected. The next topic is immunotherapy, which we have covered recently. In fact, this particular example is a collaboration involving GE that combines immunotherapy and molecular diagnostics. Although we have a focus on consumer diagnostics, most of the deals we are interested in also can play a significant role at the same time in a similar role; specifically, that of a companion diagnostic. This collaboration is of particular interest because it seeks to develop markers that can predict and characterize the patient’s immune system, and use that to better guide therapy. This can be useful for not just immunotherapy through manipulation of cancer and immune cells, but also for radiotherapy (as in the example) and chemotherapy. One of the major players in radiotherapy (specifically proton beam therapy) is Varian and expands us into our next topic of directed energy. We have previously seen directed energy used for everything from treating mental conditions to wound healing and regenerative medicine. In this example, radio ablation of heart tissue can be an extension of platform technology and can also be applied to cardiovascular tissue in general. This is also a signal that many medical device manufacturers, not just the major multi-division ones like Medtronic and Stryker, are looking to expand into new areas and can also be looking for acquisition targets. In the field of mental treatments, we have two companies. One is continuing the previous example’s theme of directed energy. In this case, the technology is looking to further improve and provide guidance for magnetic therapy. This is starting to become a more common modality to treat depression, particularly clinical depression that is resistant to pharmaceuticals. Magnetic therapy has shown promise in treating these cases with non-invasive treatment, but requires multiple, regular doses and is not effective in all cases. The issue seems to be correctly targeting the right portion of the brain; the specific region and exact bundle of neurons are still difficult to determine. In our last example, we are actually seeing more activity in epilepsy treatments, even within the pharmaceutical space. Although we don’t normally look at pharmaceutical deals going through the drug regulatory process, these types of deals are interesting as they highlight an unmet need. In fact, epilepsy is still a major unmet need, with some cases being resistant to even pharmaceuticals. These cases still require surgery, but, just like in the previous example, the guidance for this operations is sorely lacking in precision sensors and data. This is an open space, we feel, for devices on both the therapeutic and diagnostic side. |
Spotlight #xTech + Impact Summit Zoic Capital took part today in the xTech + Impact 2019 Summit at the University of Washington GIX (Global Innovation Exchange). The Summit gathered an interdisciplinary community of practitioners (corporate and nonprofit), academics, and policymakers to seed a new community that is focused on understanding and effectively utilizing exponential technologies to accelerate social transformation. Zoic Managing Director, Neal Mody, led a panel discussion on health and societal transformation that included Jim Chauvapun from Juno DX one of Zoic’s portfolio companies, Emily Turner from the Gates Foundation, Ashley Bennett from PATH, and Eshika Saxena. |
 “Integrating data with all other sources and tools is an important area where technologies can be leveraged in the health sector.” -Jim Chauvapun, Juno DX |
Podcast |
#Market Meditations Podcast The upcoming episode of the Market Meditations podcast will feature Deepak Hegde, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at NYU Stern, Director of Creative Destruction Lab NY, and Director of W. R. Berkely Innovation Labs. Deepak Hegde’s research focuses on entrepreneurship, innovation, and intellectual property rights. He studies how entrepreneurs and inventors in science and technology-based industries overcome the challenges associated with commercializing their ideas. His work has been published in journals such as Science, Nature Biotechnology, Management Science, Organization Science, Journal of Law & Economics, Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Yale Journal of Law & Technology and Research Policy. He is a recipient of the Kauffman Faculty Fellowship for entrepreneurship research and the Thomas Alva Edison Fellowship awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play Music, or Soundcloud and be notified of new episodes. |
What We’re Reading BLOOMBERG Peter Thiel-Backed Crypto Startup Pays Out 6,567% Return ADVENTURES IN CAPITALISM We’re Gonna Need More Bag-Holders… STAT Tech Giants Partner With Universities Like Stanford. They’re Also Hiring Away Star Medical Researchers SEEKER VIDEO The Fourth State of Matter Could Scrub Viruses From The Air Connect With Zoic Capital |
| The Biweekly Dealflow Update, curated by the team at Zoic Capital. |