Translating Aging
DISCO: A New Model for Entrepreneurship in Longevity Biotech (Dr. James Peyer — Cambrian Biopharma)
Dr. James Peyer, PhD, is the Founder and CEO of Cambrian Biopharma, a Distributed xDevelopment Company developing therapeutics targeting the biological drivers of aging.
Cambrian Biopharma brings together experts, scientists, and experienced company builders in a new model of entrepreneurship related to health span and aging. Dr. Peyer was previously the founder of Apollo Ventures, a successful venture capital firm focused on the longevity biotech space. He has spoken on the topic of longevity biotech and investing for Bloomberg, The Economist, TEDx, Longevity Leaders, ETH Zurich, and the Max Planck Institute on the Biology of Aging.
Today, Dr. Peyer joins host Chris Patil to discuss venture capitalism in the longevity space and the new models that are changing the game. After discussing his previous experiences with VC, Dr. Peyer introduces the Distributed Development Company (DISCO) model, which allows scientists to partner with an umbrella company (like Cambrian) instead of selling their discovery to a pharma company. He explains how this model allows investors to support scientists through the whole process of drug development, from initial idea to commercialization, while prioritizing the quality of the science above everything else. Dr. Peyer then goes on to give some details about Cambrian’s success so far and how it sources and supports up-and-coming talent in the longevity field. He finishes up by making some predictions about the future of biotech companies and how the DISCO model will have a big role to play.
In this episode, you’ll learn about venture capitalism’s role in scientific discovery and development and why Dr. Peyer believes a new model is necessary to remove the inefficiencies in the current process.
Episode Highlights:
· Dr. Peyer’s experience with Apollo Ventures and why he’s moved on to Cambrian Biopharma
· The future of the longevity space will come in two stages: reusing insights into what makes us age to build drugs for today, and using those safe and effective drugs to slow down the rate of aging in healthy people
· In the long run, company-based models will be better than fund-based ones for the longevity space
· The Distributed Development Company model (aka DISCO)
· Cambrian started with three programs and has scaled up to over fourteen in two years
· Cambrian prioritizes the quality of the science over hype
· Cambrian has raised about $160 million since 2019, including $100 million Series C financing at the end of October
· Cambrian sources talent through constant monitoring of the scientific field
· The DISCO model was designed to correct inefficiencies in the process of getting funding for scientists and their discoveries
· Drug development is a risky process, and Cambrian ensures success by carefully monitoring progress at every stage
· Being a bona fide longevity biotech organization means being willing to support every single program from funding to commercialization
· There are opportunities to partner with big pharma companies, but commitment to the whole process is the default
· Cambrian’s two publicly-disclosed programs are with Vita Therapeutics, a cell engineering company run out of Johns Hopkins
· One of the advantages Cambrian can provide to scientists is the ability to keep their discoveries as trade secrets as long as possible to maximize their patent lifespan
· The potential for the DISCO model to be used in other fields beyond longevity
· The possibility of failure and how Cambrian works to avoid it by being realistic and strategic and bringing expertise on board
· DISCO works really well for asset-centric breakthroughs made by very small companies or at universities, but it’s not the catch-all solution for everything—for example, tech platforms may be a better choice for bigger biotechs, while founder-led biotechs are better for young entrepreneurs
· External factors in aging
· Predictions for the field ten years from now
Quotes:
“I like to say that we get to take the best parts of being a VC, a pharma company, and an entrepreneurial biotech, and very few of the negatives.”
“When we raise capital into Cambrian, what we get to do is we have our Cambrian team, which cares exclusively about the quality of the science, right? Not the hype or the number of Twitter likes around some particular discovery, but exclusively about the quality of the science.”
“Cambrian breaks apart the existing longevity biotech field at the academic level, into thirteen different focus areas that we are constantly monitoring.”
“I think that our model was designed to correct some of the inefficiencies that happen for scientists and scientific founders first, and it also is a happy accident that that model is also, I think, the more investable and more scalable one.”
“Creating an organization that can really assess a group on whether it’s sink or swim based on the science and not the ability to raise money, I think has been a huge advantage for us.”
“The reality of the situation is when a drug starts its first human clinical trial, there is about a 10% chance that it will ultimately make it to approval. And if you select just on, like, venture-backed biotechs from really smart groups, that number only goes up to about 15-16%.”
“With every single program that we get involved with, if the science continues to look great, that means we are going to be there with that group, providing the funding, the organizational structure, everything to see that all the way through to commercialization.”
“The value of any drug is driven essentially by its patent life.”
“Models like the DISCO model that we’re using with Cambrian are actually going to replace a big chunk of early-stage venture capital in the biotech space and particularly for asset-centric companies.”
“I sometimes call this model of biotech, the ‘hungry beast’ model of building biotechs.”
“We’re just much more hands-on, right? We want to be doing the research and development, and the funding, and a lot of the strategy, together with the scientists that we start things with, which doesn’t fit for everybody.”
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