Preserving the Promise

Preserving the Promise: Improving the Culture of Biotech Investment critically examines why most biotech startups fail, as they emerge from universities into an ecosystem that inhibits rather than encourages innovation. This "Valley of Death" squanders our public investments in medical research and with them, the promise of longer and healthier lives. The authors explicate the Translation Gap faced by early stage biotech companies, the result of problematic technology transfer and investment practices, and provide specific prescriptions for improving translation of important discoveries into safe and effective therapies. In Preserving the Promise, Dessain and Fishman build on their collective experience as company founders, healthcare investor (Fishman) and physician/scientist (Dessain). The book offers a forward-looking, critical analysis of "conventional wisdom" that encumbers commercialization practices. It exposes the self-defeating habits of drug development in the Valley of Death, that waste money and extinguish innovative technologies through distorted financial incentives.

Dr. Dessain is the scientific co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Immunome, Inc., a cancer immunotherapy company. He is currently an associate professor at Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR) in Pennsylvania and an attending physician at the Lankenau Medical Center, where he specializes in medical oncology, runs an immunology research laboratory, and teaches in the Hematology/Oncology fellowship program. He earned an undergraduate degree in biochemistry at Brown University and then M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale University. He was an intern and resident at Brigham and Women's Hospital and a Medical Oncology fellow at Dana Farber/Partners Cancer Care in Boston. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working in the laboratory Dr. Robert A. Weinberg, an internationally renowned cancer researcher. He has lectured on biotechnology innovation at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the Harvard i-lab, and the Yale School of Management.

Innovation Meets the Translation Gap Chapter 1. Stop the Madness and Cure Something Chapter 2. Into the Valley of Death Chapter 3. Clinical Promise - Investment Practice Chapter 4. Velcade, a Biotech Success Story Chapter 5. Biotechnology and the Future of Pharma Chapter 6. Why Pharma Should Care About the Valley of Death Chapter 7. Porter's Five Forces and the Market for Angel Capital Chapter 8. Out of the Frying Pan: The Fire's Not So Great Either Chapter 9. Getting to Australia Translation Gap 1: Universities Don't Make What Companies Need Chapter 10. When Is an Experiment Ready for the Valley of Death? Chapter 11. Unintended Consequences of Applying for a Patent Chapter 12. What if It Doesn't Actually Work? Chapter 13. Building a Better Mousetrap Translation Gap 2: Good Innovation Is Not Always a Good Investment Chapter 14. Due Diligence and Angel Incentives Chapter 15. What Is Value? Chapter 16. Angels at the Crux of Invention Chapter 17. Investment: A Nuanced Decision Chapter 18. Ready for a Long-Term Relationship With a Science Experiment? Chapter 19. Investing in Hockey Sticks Chapter 20. Harps for Angels Chapter 21. Connecting Innovation to Investment Translation Gap 3: Technology Transfer Wastes Money and Innovation Chapter 22. Mitigating Supplier Power Chapter 23. Preventing Speeding by Closing the Road Chapter 24. Breaking Old Habits Epilogue Chapter 25. Epilogue: Why We Do This