Biotech Models: Bypassing VCs to Deal Direct with Pharma

There has to be a better way to do biotech than lurching from one hard-fought VC round to the next, losing sight of product development for the sake of providing an exit for investors. That’s the view of (among others) biotech entrepreneurs Karsten Henco, PhD, and Edward Stuart, PhD, founders and Chairman and CEO respectively of Zurich-based consultancy HS LifeSciences. They’ve set up HS LifeSciences to help create a more direct route from promising academic research to market, avoiding the management time, heartache and dilution associated with serial VC rounds.

Put simply, the idea is to match innovative technologies or research projects with potential pharma partners very early on, bypassing VC funding and allowing maximum resource and attention to be...