Leerink Partners

target

I'm interviewing for NY. How have your interviews been? Mine have been pure technical, why Leerink, why HC so far. PM me if you want.

shnningdown, I work for a boutique investment bank that also does a lot of deals in the biotech space but I am on the sales desk not a banker so take this with a grain of salt. But from what my bankers tell me when they are evaluating biotech deals especially when it comes to deals that in are the clinical trail stages with no revenues its all about management and their past deals. Also firms may hire outside biotech experts to review the science to see if the actually trials can be accomplished.

A good response to why healthcare/biotech is that without bankers finding deals and then the sales force finding clients retail/institutional that many of the best drugs out there would not be made. The majority of large pharma companies no longer do pre-clinical trials.

Possible question of how you would value a biotech firm with no revenue.

You could look at PV of peak sales, discount for risk of product not making it to the market or Discounted forward multiple method - try to capture value based upon expected growth from sales.

You cant do a DCF if the company has no real cash flow. Mostly would be revenue comps and the like.

Show an interest in HC, prep a stock just for safety but also check out the differences between different types of health care companies such biotech, life science, molecular diagnostics companies, etc, sometimes the lines can get a bit blurred but have a basic understanding would definitely help you stand out.

As for clinical trials trails, just understand the basic concepts, PI, PII, PII, they all can have extra arms, probablity of success increases PI-PIII.

Sorry for the ramblings. I hope I covered most of your questions.

shiningdown - for clinical stage biotech, starting with market size (i.e. prevalence of indication / disease) and geography (though LP generally works with companies that are in trials in the US and most banks get EU/Asia revenue projections wrong anyways) is the correct way to do it. You then prescribe (ha) a discount rate based on probability of success (can use comps based on fda approvals or positive data readouts at each level, Ph I/II/III).... it's definitely not a science and even valuing companies that are just commercial but have a large pipeline can be difficult.

Drugs further along just have a lower discount rate than those in earlier stages and it's approximate based on whoever is guiding the model's experiences (or through physician interviews)

At the end of the day, showing interest in the industry is probably most key.

It's more art than science from my experience. You'll be looking at the market size, how crowded it is, and comps of companies that are further along in the process/had their IPO's already. There's just so much that can go differently than what you're expecting when you try to project further than 18-24 months (i.e. change in target demographic, business model, FDA regulations, etc.).

Hey Shining, was the superday for SA or FT? Did you ever hear back?

tsup?

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would like to know as well

http://hc.wharton.upenn.edu/nicholson/pdf/merger_Sept03.pdf

they aren't THAT good at healthcare. The BBs pull in the bigger and better deals. However, you can definitely still establish yourself as a strong healthcare banker at Leerink Swann.

Really good HC shop. I think that's all they do. They are definitely well know in HC

Thanks for your reply about Leerink, I was curious if you have any experience in Healthcare banking? I have an interview with them coming up and was wondering what are some good sources of healthcare industry info that might be useful and/or healthcare specific valuation info. If not, no worries, but I would appreciate any feedback if you have any. Thanks again for your time

As for Healthcare IB, first try and study up on the different sub-sectors of healthcare, pharmaceuticals vs. home care vs. medical distribution vs. medtech and so on. Know what certain companies play in each space, i.e, like a McKesson in healthcare distribution, Walgreens in Retail Pharmacy or Medtronic and Siemens in Medtech.

Try and study up on healthcare terms/issues like medicare and medicaid stuff, reimbursement issues (a lot of these have happened or are happening), how a drug gets FDA approval, etc.

Because Leerink is focused solely on the healthcare space, they might grill you on healthcare specific things.

Definitely agree with dayaaam,

Healthcare can go from biotech/pharma, to assisted living, to REITs. All have different economics, and it is important to understand each individually, so that you can understand the rationales for M&A activity in each (if M&A is what you're in to). There's a large nonprofit factor in the healthcare space, too, so see if Leerink works in any of that.

figure something out about healthcare

2 huge cancer acquisitions in the past couple of days - celgene / avila and amgen / micromet, could be a good place to start

read eq res reports on top life sciences and biologic companies, as well as generics (teva for ex) given the patent hill fall off over the next 3-4 yrs.

Leerink is heavy in LS, not so much on provider/payor space, although that is very active right now given ACO regulation and the insolvencies within the providor space.

Leerink has different services. is this for ER/IB/Consulting?

I interviewed with them for SA a couple cycles ago; standard IBD interview (fit + usual technicals). Can't hurt to know some stuff about the HC space as well, in addition to recent deals they've been on. What office is this for?

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It's for the New York office.

Thanks for all the help

The phone interview went well and now I'm going to the office for a superday.