Anthony Curro

A series for those interested in listening to transformational healthcare

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If my flight takes off (and lands), looking forward to seeing biotech friends and peers at the Convergence Forum to workshop some ideas for a campaign to save innovation (from mostly misdirected public rage). We'll require only three things to make this possible 1. Read this roadmap article to get in the mood (an outline of the campaign): https://lnkd.in/e8SS-78x 2. Creativity (drinks will help) 3. "Can do" attitude Convergence Forum #biotech No Patient Left Behind

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Indaptus Therapeutics (NASDAQ: INDP) continues to get a lot of interest in and questions about their “#PulsePrime” approach. Indaptus CEO, #JeffreyMeckler, took a moment to explain. In short, it’s their unique strategy using #Decoy20 to briefly but powerfully activate the #immunesystem. By stimulating immune cells to produce key #cytokines and #chemokines, they 'prime' the body to combat tumors effectively. Learn more now! https://lnkd.in/gx6eVggX #revolutionize #IndaptusTherapeutics #Immunotherapy #CancerResearch #PulsePrime

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Healthcare Innovation and Investment News for the week from HDIG HDIG Search, Consulting and Venture HDIG is an ecosystem with a searchable database of hospital healthcare venture, innovation centers, tech transfer offices and their portfolio companies. It would assist you in understanding the landscape of partnerships, performance, and contacts. Early-stage companies use it to find partners and funding for their pilots, or even professional firms or tech companies depending on their needs. Launched this year with nearly 10,000 companies, hospitals, and funds, get full access for a special monthly subscription of only $100 and you can cancel at anytime, this would include building your profile. Learn more about our Acceleration Pilot Program, paid pilots, reverse studio model and other research and services. #HDIG #HealthcareInnovation #HealthcareVenture #HospitalInnovation

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Chris Garabedian, CEO, Xontogeny & Portfolio Manager, PXV Fund, Alyssa Abo, MD, MBA, & Suzy Engwall 🚀 Thrilled to catch up with Chris Garabedian, CEO of Xontogeny and Portfolio Manager of PxV Fund, alongside industry pros Alyssa Abo, MD, MBA, and Suzy Engwall, at the HLTH Conference! We dove into some powerful trends driving healthcare innovation and investment—here’s a taste of the conversation: 🌟 On the Hunt for Breakout Companies: Chris is laser-focused on identifying companies on the verge of breakout, paying close attention to their customer base and the real traction they’re making in the market. 🔥 A Wave of Mergers & Acquisitions: A recent conversation with a healthcare leader revealed a startling reality—50% of today’s startups might not be around next year. This climate is sparking a wave of matchmaking between startups and suitors, as companies look for strategic partners to ensure longevity and success. 🎯 Why Team Matters: When investing in early-stage companies, Chris is all about the people. His focus? Founders’ networks, their track records, and what sets their solutions apart in a competitive landscape. ⚡ The Rise of Consumer-Centric Healthcare: The consumerization of healthcare is sparking incredible growth and reshaping the market, but it’s still challenging to pick winners. Healthcare remains a complex arena where innovative technology is essential, but standard reimbursement models continue to be the backbone of long-term viability. Exciting times ahead as we witness the rapid disruption of healthcare. 📈💥 #HLTH2024 #healthcareinnovation #venturecapital #Xontogeny #healthcarestartups #ConsumerHealth #mergersandacquisitions #healthtech Planetary Health First Mars Next #planetaryhealthfirstmarsnext

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Hard to tell which is more naive… the study in this article or Fierce for publishing this article. The study claims pharma can weather price controls by just switching away from early stage research. And that small companies don’t even rely on revenues for R&D funding but rather investment. Yup… but what drives investment? Didn’t stop to think that maybe early stage R&D, like all R&D, gets funding because of expected future revenues? And that price controls on today’s drugs impact R&D not by cutting today’s revenues but by cutting everyone’s expectations of future revenues? Tell me you secretly hate the sector you cover by not so secretly telling me you hate the sector you cover. Come Fierce… surely you can do better. https://lnkd.in/ej9fGxZK

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Of two LinkedIn posts, the wrong one got the most engagement from biotech folks. Tons of people engaged with my post (below) about a flawed IRA-related study in Fierce that claimed that price controls wouldn't impact pharma or innovation much (or some such claim). But fewer engaged with my post (and the underlying NPLB post) about the absurdity of there being a copay for insulin. https://lnkd.in/evDiDUgu Campaigning to lower OOP costs (even with so much as a click) is existential to innovation. There is no innovation without proper insurance. And proper insurance means that insurance covers appropriate treatments honestly and transparently, with low or ideally no copayments or deductibles. OOP costs are innovation kryptonite. The IRA emerged because voters, angered by drug costs unaffordable to some (even if affordable to most), reward politicians for punching pharma in the face (even if it's America's own face). Appropriately prescribed medicines (do an electronic prior auth if you have to confirm) shouldn't come with an unaffordable copay - that's not insurance. That's a lie. Many Americans who rage against drug prices are really demanding Truth in Insurance. Until they get it, some of that rage will be misdirected to calls for price controls on all medicines. If you are a scientist, lawyers, investor, executive, or anyone in the bio/pharma industry, and if you have only 20 seconds to read and click on something, then click on things related to calling for insurance reform to lower OOP costs. If you then have an extra 20 seconds, by all means, gripe with me about how little academics understand about finance. The first step to saving innovation is OOP reform. Those can be both legislative (e.g. IRA included OOP caps) and pressure by workers on employers to revise their self-insured plans (e.g. lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson and Wells Fargo by employees contending that they were ripped off by standard PBM rebate-seeking games). Anyone can ask their employer "what copay does our plan charge for insulin... why isn't it $0?". There are employers who charge $0 for insulin and asthma inhalers. Branded drug copays add up to only 0.7% of all healthcare costs. That can easily be absorbed in to premiums. Branded drugs in total add up to only 8% of all healthcare costs. They are affordable to America when we pay out of premiums, but not to patients made to pay out of pocket. What we pay for branded drugs is an investment towards owning them as generics. That's the intent of the patent system. But Americans won't care about how much value medicines offer society if they see anyone can't afford them. OOP caps are the 1st step towards America caring about our innovation arguments. So check out & share that OOP post I link to above. And follow No Patient Left Behind for more on this. Let's campaign together.

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Medtech startups are bouncing back! Q2 saw $3.3 billion in VC investments, marking steady growth and a positive sign for the sector. With several notable deals and rising exits, including Tempus AI’s $400 million IPO, 2024 is shaping up to be a strong year for medtech venture capital. #medtech #VC #medtechfunding

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CNBC: Marc Rowan of Apollo Capital shares a provocative perspective on the convergence of public and private equity, challenging concerns over daily mark-to-market fluctuations and liquidity discounts. He posits that the origination business could serve as the ultimate bridge between these realms, promising a tantalizing future for investors. This is a conversation worth tuning into. #origination #publicequity #liquidity

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Biopharma's "mud-and-stick" season rolls on... From last week but worth noting Symbiotic Capital's new debt fund. This new vehicle from Arie Belldegrun's Bellco Capital is meant to provide debt to later-stage pharma. While these announcements never come on day 1 of a fund, what was truly astounding was that its already 40-50% deployed (!!!). https://lnkd.in/g7ehYBNR There's a lot of pain out there across the industry for a debt facility to be deployed that fast. You're seeing companies across the board hunker down, cut every program but their lead, and just focus on that, waiting (often times) for clinical readouts. Single assets are the new "platform". Which is why biopharma is in "mud and stick" season (my northeast friends will know what this is). Its not winter, but its definitely not spring. What are you seeing? Let me know! #pharma #investing #biotech

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Audax Group created Panoramic Health in 2021. Since then, two other PE-backed nephrology platforms have been formed, Renal Care 360º, backed by Pharos Capital Group and Evergreen Nephrology, backed by Rubicon Founders. Private investment in the nephrology market is in the very early innings. Given the ongoing shift to value-based care, PGP expects continued acceleration for both add-on acquisitions as well as new platform entrants coming to the market over the next 12-24 months. See the most recent market update: https://lnkd.in/gUU4pkrc #kidneycare #nephrology #privateequity #marketupdate

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The latest #SVBHealthcare report found that VCs deployed $7.2 billion to healthcare-focused #AI companies last year. Read FierceHealthcare’s article about the report for an overview of what recent AI investment trends mean for the healthcare innovation space

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Last week, Virginia Li at FirstWord Group led a fantastic discussion of the biotech markets with my public perspectives and the venture financing perspectives of Colleen Feriod Cuffaro of Canaan. A recording of our panel is available at the link below. Takeaways: * We are seeing a pick up in financing volumes but the bar for quality is still very high. It is a also longer process to get through a successful financing, but take the money if you can get it. Dilution is secondary to having a strong syndicate and runway. * Hot areas of investor focus are oncology and autoimmunity. The flavor de jour is applying traditional oncology drugs such as cell therapy and bispecifics to autoimmunity! We have seen early data in myasthenia gravis and lupus. * Gene therapy appears to have cooled off with increasing competition for treating the same disease areas with different modalities such as siRNA. https://lnkd.in/gdtmGDBY

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Every four months, the No Patient Left Behind team and a small group of professionals (including me) train a cohort of NPLB fellows in the fundamentals of affordable biomedical innovation. TODAY (Sept 22) is the deadline to apply for the upcoming session. https://lnkd.in/e_VnJvBK Hundreds of fellows have already graduated. They can answer the following question correctly, even though most people, even many folks who engage in drug pricing, can’t: “how can you tell when a uniquely essential drug has been overpriced?” The NPLB Fellowship accept candidates from all walks… ranging from executives to students… scientists and doctors to attorneys and journalists. There is plenty of opportunity to engage with other fellows, the NPLB team, me, and my colleagues at RA Capital Management. And it’s not all lectures. There is asynchronous learning, discussions, and fellows work on some hands-on projects under the leadership of Sr Fellows from prior sessions. Maybe this is for you. Or maybe it’s for someone you know, in which case pass it on. And if you are interested in the material but don’t have the time to commit to the fellowship, check out the Learn tab on the NPLB website and absorb the Fundamentals you’ll find there. Peter #biotech

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We need pharmaceuticals controlled by state regulations and out of the lobbies' grip in Washington DC. Shifting control of pharmaceuticals from federal oversight to state regulation and reducing lobbyist influence in Washington could indeed address many issues, such as drug pricing and access. The influence of pharmaceutical lobbyists in shaping policy has long been criticized, as these companies have often prioritized profits over public health, resulting in skyrocketing drug prices and limited access to necessary medications for many Americans. A more effective economic development authority that employs locals with community first and lobbyists not invited and draining money for middle man money changers. Moving to a state-controlled regulatory framework for pharmaceuticals could mean that states set their standards for drug pricing, approval, and distribution. This decentralization might encourage competition, drive down costs, and foster innovation as states try different models. Additionally, it could increase transparency by allowing for more localized and responsive systems, potentially holding pharmaceutical companies more accountable.

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In an exclusive interview with The American Bazaar, Dr. Atul Varadhachary, Managing Partner at Fannin Innovation, shares insights into the challenges and strategies of early-stage biotech investment. With a focus on bridging the gap between groundbreaking scientific discoveries and successful commercialization, Dr. Varadhachary discusses Fannin’s unique model, the importance of talent development, and their journey to launching pioneering companies like Procyrion, Inc., Radiomer Therapeutics and Pulmotect, Inc. Read more about how Fannin is shaping the future of biotech in Houston and beyond. https://lnkd.in/e6pRkPbT

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