Hey all, wanted to ask this question as an incoming intern in consulting with an interest in Life Sciences. What would you guys recommend I do to best position myself to make it to the buy side in biotech?
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same here, going into life science investment banking
Bump interested too
Interested
Get an MD or PhD
Here comes the classic cope from advanced degree people in this space.. if you’ve been around the industry enough you’ll notice that the non-MD/PhD folks do much better on average, and when it comes to Sellside & Pods (both of which have high turnover), MDs & PhDs are the first ones to get axed. It’s a classic circlejerk of some PhD folks reading up on insignificant details while smart investors stick with the “ORR or GTFO” mindset.
Anyways, to answer OPs question, how do you break into a Biotech HF.. you can’t really.. there’s no on cycle recruiting or really any structured hiring outside of the advanced degree summer positions you’ll see on DocJobs. What else could you do? Pods are a bit easier as they have more structured training programs and not everyone on those desks comes from a science background.. the work you do there varies but often leans more commercial rather than smid cap clinical trials. So what about SM specialist funds? There’s ones you’ll never break into without an MD or a PhD.. but actually some of the best funds (BVF EcoR1 etc) have a ton of non advanced degree people, often with a preference against them.
Now what can you do to improve your chances? There’s a lot of factors you can’t control… do you go to a MIT Stanford Caltech Penn LSM Harvard etc type place and are a hard science? If so will have a much easier time getting your foot in the door, and you’ll need a strong network with pitches ready that at minimum mirror the quality of a SS analyst. Otherwise… places like Biotech ER or IB are your best bet… one of the few pipelines is learning the space under a good analyst. The important thing fund managers care about is can you give them ideas… work on ideas constantly & be able to present them and you’re on your way.
I don't really agree that non-MD/PhD folks do much better on average. You can probably gauge this by surveying the backgrounds of the principals whom have launched new therapeutics-focused HF's in recent years. These people have probably been the most successful in the time they've been biotech investors as they've been able to sell that performance to raise capital...
Less experience:
Senai Asefaw, MD - Paradigm
Onusa Chantanapongwanij, MD - Artia
Egen Atkinson MD, Michael Kramarz MD - Commodore
Xiaoying Tian PhD - Saturn V
Jacob Vogelstein PhD - Catalio
More experience:
Ryan Wilder - Vestal Point
Vince Aita, PhD - Cutter
Alex Karnal - Braidwell
Elie Kobrin MD - Davern
That being said, I do not think an advanced degree is required for success, I think it just facilitates it in the highly competitive space that is biotech public equities.
Hey can I pm you a bit more about my background? Appreciate the nuanced answer.
Is this true? Reasons you’d say this or are you coping?
can I pm?
Happy to answer questions. I broke in with undergrad LS degree after a 3 yr stint
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