Manu’s (Holiday) Minute
Money and Mission
When I look back over my past year, two deals shine the brightest. Both had a common theme: patients.
The first was a new round of funding for Progentec Diagnostics, an OMRF spin-off. The funding will help bring Progentec’s biomarker-based tools for identifying lupus flares and monitoring disease activity closer to clinics and hospitals.
Too often, spin-offs are so concerned with obtaining funding that they lose sight of the why. Of course, as Sister Generose Gervais of the Mayo Clinic famously said, “No money, no mission.” But she also said, “No mission, no need for money.”
Progentec’s new round of funding, the company’s second, will enable the continued development of disease-management tools. Those tools are in great need to help patients and healthcare providers stay ahead of a disease that affects more than a million women in the U.S. alone.
It’s also key that you choose your funders wisely, and Progentec has done that. The funding round was led by i2E and OCA Ventures, and it also added a new investor: NMC Lifesciences, a leading global healthcare provider.
This team of investors can provide the young company with a wealth of resources beyond capital: guidance on product development, pricing, payors and healthcare markets. And with diversified backing, the company is poised for future financing opportunities – and for success in getting its products to patients.
The second deal that highlighted my 2018 was when Obato acquired all rights to OKN-007, OMRF’s experimental glioblastoma drug.
A deadly but relatively rare (approximately 25,000 cases in the U.S. each year) form of brain cancer, glioblastoma is not Alzheimer’s or stroke. When we looked for a corporate partner, we needed someone with experience developing drugs for orphan indications.
That’s why I was so pleased to partner with Oblato, a newly formed U.S. subsidiary of GTree BNT. GTree has a strong track record in the orphan disease space, so it is well positioned to help guide this drug through trials and, we hope, into hospitals and clinics, where it can reach patients who currently face a bleak treatment landscape.
Looking to 2019, we’ll continue to focus on strategy and mission as we look to pair OMRF technologies with industry teams that offer those technologies the greatest chances for success. Funding is important, but it’s not the alpha and omega. Without full alignment with mission – both that of the institution and the candidate technology – dollars are just dollars. And money alone won’t deliver better patient outcomes.
Here’s wishing you and yours wonderful holidays. Have a happy, healthy and productive 2019!
Best,
Manu Nair
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