Why are we investing in Drug Development and hesitating with regards to Medical Devices or Diagnostics?

Part of the answer is obviously that our past experiences and successes fall within Drug Development – but also that both MedTech and Diagnostics seem to have a lower likelihood of getting to an exit once you have invested.

Defining the field for Medical Devices and Diagnostics can be challenging, but by using Pitchbook® industry codes in the figure below, our count is 30 EUR >50M transactions of VC funded EU HQ’ed companies in the period 2010 to 2020 on a background of 2,240 similar new companies financed during the same period – simplistically a success ratio of 1.3%.

Again using Pitchbook® industry codes, our comparable count for Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals is 105 transactions based on 3,013 new companies and thus a success ratio of 3.5%. And apparently, the multiples are higher!

Accordingly, by those numbers, finding a successful European MedTech company is almost three times harder than finding a successful drug discovery company and you will be paid less …and we already think finding successful drug discovery companies is hard work 😊

What do you think?
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5 latest press releases

Teitur Trophics Raises EUR 28M in Series A Financing to advance the development and treatment for neurodegenerative diseases

Teitur Trophics (“Teitur”), a biotech company dedicated to developing new treatments for patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases, today announces the completion of a €28M Series A financing. The financing was co-led by Sunstone Life Science Ventures and...

Galecto Completes Enrollment in Phase 1b_2a GULLIVER-2 Trial of its Selective, Oral Galectin-3 Inhibitor GB1211 in Liver Cirrhosis

BOSTON, March 29, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Galecto, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLTO), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the development of novel treatments for fibrosis and cancer, today announced it has completed enrollment in Parts 2 and 3 of its ongoing 3-part...

Sunstone Life Science Ventures is looking for a Student Assistant

No longer accepting applications We are looking for a student to join our team for approximately 8 hours a week. As part of the team, you will play a pivotal role in the management of our deal flow, which lies in the order of 400-500 opportunities every year....

Sunstone announce new investment in immuno-oncology company STipe Therapeutics

Sunstone Life Science Ventures today announce it has invested in new portfolio company Stipe Therapeutics ApS (“STipe”), an immuno-oncology company dedicated to developing novel cancer therapeutics based on its first class drugs modulating the STING pathway.

Zealand Pharma achieves primary and all key secondary endpoints in pediatric Phase 3 trial with dasiglucagon for severe hypoglycemia

Zealand Pharma A/S (“Zealand”) (Nasdaq: ZEAL), a Copenhagen-based biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of innovative peptide-based medicines, announces positive results in the pediatric Phase 3 trial with dasiglucagon for severe hypoglycemia...

5 latest articles

Biotech startups in Scandinavia have 460 MEUR at hand – but burn is up – and runway the shortest in 3 years

As the market continues to fluctuate and geopolitical issues continue to impact the economy, it's important to take a closer look at the state of pre-commercial life science companies. At Sunstone, we assisted companies in our portfolio with listings and refinancing,...

Unmet medical needs in cardiovascular sub-populations – an opportunity for VCs?

Unmet medical needs in cardiovascular sub-populations – an opportunity for VCs?  For the past 5 months we have had the pleasure of having Philip Brainin as intern at Sunstone Life Science Ventures. Apart from bringing valuable insights to our daily activities, he has...

Why do VC’s not cut losses in time?

Why do VC’s not cut losses in time?  A clinical trial is a very expensive experiment for testing a hypothesis, while hoping for a positive outcome. However, if well designed, a negative outcome could increase the potential for a positive outcome in a subsequent trial....

Are some diseases associated with a higher risk of venture capital losses?

Are some diseases associated with a higher risk of venture capital losses?  Before summer we posted a study correlating venture capital losses in drug development with the magnitude of funding of clinical trials. We have used two approaches to find losses: 1)...

Do compromises in clinical trials cause Venture Capital losses?

Do compromises in clinical trials cause Venture Capital losses? In 2020 and 2021 Sunstone looked in depth at drug development venture-backed successes to find usable attributes and learn from the past. We have now turned the analysis up-side down and looked at the...

Who is in the driver’s seat of our industry?

A recent analysis from Pharma Intelligence | Informa 2021 highlights the current trends of pipeline products (top panel). We have subsequently surveyed Sunstone’s incoming deal flow for the same period and noted the correlation for the top 3 categories with oncology...