Breaking into Biotech / Life Science VC or PE

Hi all,

I am a senior from a semi-target who will be joining the healthcare group of a top BB (JPM/MS/GS) and am majoring in biochemistry and economics. I was originally very interested in going into life science / biotech venture capital after a few years as an analyst but I am starting to reconsider after reading about how difficult it is to break in. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with moving into biotech VC, and why they might have picked it over biotech / healthcare focused PE. Additionally, if you have any advice on how to move into the industry from an investment bank I would really appreciate it. Finally, what are some of the more prominent firms that deal in both the biotech VC and PE space. Thanks for the help!

 

Also curious about lifescience biotech PE as well as healthcare PE.

Does anyone in the field know if PE healthcare/lifescience deals are on the rise or slowing down? I spoken with someone in VC who said that healthcare had slowed down int the last 10 years. I'd love to hear other opinions.

 

I don't currently work for a Healthcare/Biotech focused PE firm, but my PE firm does look at Healthcare as one of our focus sectors. I can say that I've personally looked at 5-7 deals in the past 2 months all focused on Healthcare. I think Healthcare is an exciting place to be right now, along with Biotech.

Array
 
MinneBanker:

basically MD (as in doctorate) and previous startup experience

I do not want to go to Med school because it is hard to take meal breaks whilst dissecting some random corpse. What would be the second best option?

"He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man." ― William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
 

You want some level of domain knowledge. The core financial skillset is needed, but fact of the matter is that in lifesciences VC, you are taking a lot of binary risk since the companies you will look at are pre-approval. In order to make a sound investment decision, you'll need industry / market / regulatory knowledge, but also some clinical knowledge to differentiate certain therapies from others. Check out the backgrounds of any of the current healthcare VC professionals (Third Rock Ventures, Essex Woodlands, Canaan Partners Healthcare, 5AM Ventures)

 

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