Funding Transformational Platforms: Sustaining Development of Next Generation Medicines in a Challenging Market

The unprecedented venture funding into promising biotechs and public market performance in biotechs over the past few years is now facing challenging public markets for biotechs and a pullback in venture funding.

McKinsey & Company will discuss their latest research on venture investment themes in new technology platforms, including Cell therapy 2.0, Next generation gene therapies, Precision medicine, Machine learning-enabled drug discovery, Strategies for “undruggable” targets, and New delivery methods. In each category, we see exciting emerging technologies to address challenges and push technical boundaries, such as innate immune cells, precision control and in vivo manipulation in cell therapies. More examples include new small-molecule binding sites, protein degradation and novel disease targets to address “undruggable” targets.

McKinsey & Company will also share their perspectives on how biotechs can survive and thrive in the current market. They see the recent downturn as a “return to normal” of the biotech sector aligning to S&P 500 returns rather than a significant deviation from historical trends. The fundamentals – increasing regulatory clarity and commercial viability for innovative therapies addressing unmet needs – have not changed. That said, emerging companies should rethink their strategy in the face of the current market downturn, including scrutinizing cash management and financing and rethinking paths to long-term value creation.