The pursuit of progress during these unprecedented times has led to a surge in life sciences investment and funding for early stage companies. Investors are on the lookout for the next big innovation while also navigating new ways of sourcing and managing portfolio companies. Our panel of experienced early-stage investors discussed the top trends in this push for advancement, including sectors attracting the most dollars in today’s challenging business landscape, key issues that early stage investors are watching as they source and vet new investment opportunities, steps that executives of early-stage companies can take to articulate their value and attract investors, and more.

McDermott partners Todd Finger and Joanna Lin moderated this discussion featuring Eric Aguiar, MD, partner at Aisling Capital; Dr. Andrew ElBardissi, partner at Deerfield Management; and Marian Nakada, vice president of venture investment at J&J Innovation.

Below are the top takeaways for Life Sciences Dealmaking Symposium: Powering through the Pandemic: Trends in Early-Stage Investment, click here to access the full webinar.

Access the PDF here.

COVID-19 fundamentally changed the process for evaluating new investment opportunities, Dr. ElBardissi said. “Meeting face-to-face with the management team, kicking the tires, touring the facility—those are intangible factors
that are very difficult to replace in this corporate environment,” he said. “Candidly, the bar has gotten significantly higher, as you think about our inability to conduct diligence the way we would like and as you think about all the constraints in the current environment.”