Creating an ecosystem for white space moonshots in bio

Written in 2025 (as timing may be relevant to this post)

Key thoughts:

  • Mainstream venture seed ecosystem as a low barrier creation for pharma companies is no longer a good game.

  • Silicon Valley remains unproven as an epicenter for white space therapeutics.

  • Economics of biotech is broken. XBI has been flat for over a decade. Something needs to change… Will not be fixed with new science/technology so wins will remain capped.

  • How to advance white space drugs that really move the needle on human health? Create a more resilient vehicle to advance drugs into later stages without adhering to late stage bio money pattern matching.

    • SV funded efforts - haven’t seen one win yet. Clearing series A/B into commercialization is a valley of death bc dependent on biotech big checks or public markets (which are massively distressed right now)

  • New experiment: I want to create a drug company and set it up to sail with critical mass within the next three years.

    • Instead of a one-off company betting on X targets or drugs, create a concentrated bet in a therapeutic area with overlooked technology. Right now, this is metabolic mechanisms -> sarcopenia aka diverse MoAs for obesity/related chronic diseases. Rivus doing a small example of this but not built to buy.

    • Plan: Consensus -> white space

      • Current state:

        • Have a ppar delta drug (w/ good human data) that could be repurposed for novel sarcopenia indication.

        • Potentially adiponectin

        • Potentially uncoupler

      • Immediate plan: Create a company around technologies for metabolic modulation

        • What are the overlooked clinical applications?

        • Who is the ideal team that I want to recruit?

        • What is the short & long term clinical plan rn? (maybe work w Phil on this)

        • How much money and from who? Map out who would fund into later stages.

      • Long term white space swings:

        • OR once there is good phase 2 data, take into more risky use cases (i.e. defense applications)

        • Post commercial stage: Take smaller swings developing one-off, well validated white space drugs (i.e. concussion)