Finance & Capital Markets

1. Investing In The Biostack With Modi Ventures' Sahir Ali, Ph.D. 9/4/2025

   On the Business of Biotech this week, Sahir Ali, Ph.D., founder and general partner at Modi Ventures, a family office investing at the intersection of technology and biology, talks about adapting the Markowitz model to improve returns and balance risk, his concept of the "biostack" for making direct investments into life sciences companies, and the revolutionary potential of scientific super intelligence.

2. Episode 3: The Biopharma Exit Strategy With Dr. Francois Nader 8/13/2020

   Every new, emerging biopharma company shares a common goal: creating value for its employees, its board, its investors, and ultimately, patients. Along the way, that value creating might get a boost from an IPO, a merger, an acquisition, or steady growth as a private entity. On this episode of The Business Of Biotech, we talk with Dr. Francois Nader—a man who's orchestrated several wildly successful biotech exits—about why it's imperative to begin with the end in mind, and how to navigate your options when the time is right.

3. A $1B AI Bet With Foresite Labs' Vik Bajaj, Ph.D. 12/15/2024

   This past spring, Xaira Therapeutics launched with $1 billion in backing, a who's-who mashup of Silicon Valley and biopharma stars led by Marc Tessier-Lavigne in the C-suite, and a mission to develop AI-generated drugs. On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, we're digging into the company's origin story and its place on the greater techbio landscape with one of the men bearing responsibility for Xaira's launch.

4. Biotech Is Back With Allan Shaw 1/24/2024

   The Business of Biotech took a trip to San Francisco for the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, that most target-richest of environments for those of us who like talking shop with biotech builders. The results of that trip will feed the next several weeks of Business of Biotech podcast programming, and we're kicking things off with everyone's favorite life sciences CFO, Allan Shaw.

5. Fed Funding: Creative Capital Generation With James Thomas Coates, Ph.D. 8/1/2022

   As biotech capital markets continue to restrict access to funding for emerging biopharmas, you might be surprised by how many federal dollars get left on the negotiating table. To that end, James Thomas Coates, Ph.D. and his team at Decisive Point have carved out a niche in the venture capital space.

6. Funding Alzheimer's Tx Dev with ADDF's Karen Harris 3/31/2024

   We've really been looking forward to dropping this episode with Karen Harris, Chief Financial Officer and Head of Mission-Related Investing at the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation. While the markets have warmed a bit since we recorded this episode, Karen's thoughtful perspective on the sometimes tumultuous Alzheimer's therapeutics space is valuable to any drug developer working in the cognitive medicines arena.

7. Fiscal Turnarounds With Protalix's Eyal Rubin 8/30/2023

   Within about five minutes of conversation with Protalix CFO Eyal Rubin, I learned that he doesn’t bite his tongue about the rigors of biotech business and finance management, which is precisely why I’m eager to talk with him on today’s episode of the podcast. From commercialization deals with big pharma to being about $50 million underwater to swatting away the day trading armchair quarterbacks on Stocktwits, Rubin’s seen a few things and he’s developed more than a few opinions.

8. Building A Cancer Pipeline In A Molecule With Actuate Therapeutics' Dan Schmitt 11/26/2025

   On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, Dan Schmitt, President and CEO at Actuate Therapeutics, talks about building a company around elraglusib, a GSK-3β inhibitor for cancer.

9. Embracing Biotech Chaos With Memo's Erik van den Berg 9/8/2024

   Erik van den Berg is CEO and board member at Memo Therapeutics, and he's a student of biotech chaos. In fact, he's been embracing it with intention for the past 30 years. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, he walks us through the management of that chaos in specific detail.

10. Origins Of A Biopharma VC Deal With Bernat Olle, Ph.D. And Parag Shah 6/21/2023

    Here's a behind-the-scenes breakdown of how Vedanta Biosciences secured the support of K2 Health Ventures in its recent $100 million+ financing to fund a pivotal Phase 3 study.