On November 21st, 2018 OBIO hosted “Doing Deals with Strategics & Investors: Getting on Their Radar and Staying There,” at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP.

The day featured a presentation from Geoff Collett, Managing Director, CKC Advisory who shared experience from his 30+ year career, which included $16B in pharma deals.

Geoff highlighted that pharmaceutical companies consider collaborations as critical. He emphasized that they are open to taking meetings with early-stage companies. However, partner selection is a key to success and strategics are becoming increasingly sophisticated in identifying partnership opportunities. He concluded that entrepreneurs have to be clear on exactly who they want as a strategic partner and why. Geoff also indicated that entrepreneurs must be honest in their assessment of the gaps in their data and risks going forward when they are talking to potential partners.

The day also included a presentation from iGan Partners’ Billy Lai (Associate) and Ivan Koparan (Analyst) who discussed engaging investors. They addressed what an entrepreneur needs to do before approaching investors, including realistically evaluating where they are at, how much money they need and where it will get them. Highlights of the talk included who to approach to get a meeting with a VC and what to do (and what not to do) during a meeting.

Finally, Christina Yeh, OBIO, presented about how you can use the Pitchbook database (available to OBIO members) and other resources to identify and evaluate potential strategics and investors.

The audio and slides for each presentation is available on the OBIO member portal.

Please take a look at the photo gallery below: