Sonal Pai’s Post

Keytruda vs Opdivo as the winning PD-L1 agonist in solid tumor. Mounjaro vs Wegovy as the winning GLP-1 for weight loss. It’s a battle as old as time: as big pharma’s pipelines begin to look increasingly similar across large-scale indications and modalities, products must be truly best-in-class as opposed to first-in-class: oftentimes there is less major differentiation across efficacy and safety. Visionaries highlight a new recipe to beat order-of-entry benchmarks without simply relying on clinical gains; perhaps through other differentiating dimensions such as route of administration, dosage frequency, and expanding into sub-indications. Another opportunity is through a robust yet unique commercial strategy. In my previous piece, I highlighted my excitement for AI-led innovation focusing on the commercialization of drug products, through product-led scale as opposed to clinical. Surfacing a few additional areas that interest me in neuroscience digital companions, and tools for pharma commercial. Ultimately, patients will benefit if they can get personalized treatment faster and more efficiently delivered to them. If you are building or investing in these spaces, I would love to hear from you.

Read my latest thoughts on the future of biomanufacturing: We are at a great inflection point in pharmaceutical manufacturing with the breakneck speed that automation and biology are traversing. Alongside the outsized impact from macro events, white space emerges that is ripe for innovation at the intersection of hardware, software, and wetware, innovating upon successes of incumbents. Special thanks to Nallakkan Arvindan, Manish Kothari, and Peter Olcott for brainstorming with me on this topical area.

Did you know? A recent analysis of the 44 top healthcare investment firms found women made up just one-fifth of the workforce. We're on a mission to change this status quo in life sciences investing. Thank you to a few catalysts for coming out! We had a lovely time hosting and hearing your perspectives. If anyone is keen to get more involved, feel free to reach out to me. More work to be done, Onwards! Dr Uzma Choudry Priya Oberoi Hanadi Jabado DL Aitian Li, CICPA Jia-Yi H. Ruth Coleman Caroline Haegeman Rosie Barnett Charlotte Davison Georgia Frost Stephanie Murtagh Sara Watson, PhD Vivien de Tusch-Lec

I've been in the UK for a year now, and embarrassingly made my first trip out to Cambridge only last week! Thanks to Xavier Parkhouse-Parker and the team at Cambridge Future Tech for having me on panel to discuss scaling deeptech ventures. We dove into the timing of breaking into the US market (industry-dependent, also encourage teams to look beyond US into Asia), the impact of an agile and dynamic team (timing and self-reflection is crucial for a heavily technical founder to take on the role of CTO and recruit externally for a team within the CEO's office/business development), ways to de-risk moonshot endeavors (KOLs on your advisory board, early pilot results), and much more. Especially thankful to be on panel with and learn from investment experts Sanjeev Gordhan, Robert K DiFazio, Ishaq Ahmad, and Phil O'Donovan. #cambridge #deeptech

Thrilled by today’s event at the inauguration of Recursion's new London office: the event was brimming with insights from Dimension, Air Street Capital, Valence Labs and other notable contributors. It feels like just yesterday when we at Genentech embarked on our partnership with Recursion. At that time, they were pioneers in computational discovery and development. Fast-forward 2.5 years later, and we now see an ecosystem of over 800 companies revolutionizing this space. The key takeaways from the event underscored the UK's, particularly London’s, incredible pool of talent at the intersection of both biology and AI: London has solidified its position as the third largest AI hub globally and the foremost outside of the US. However, there remains ongoing need to cultivate commercial expertise within academic circles and to highlight success stories to inspire emerging entrepreneurs. Onwards! #techbio #biotech #recursion #london #uk #valencelabs Read my detailed post here: https://lnkd.in/eEiYg4hZ

Great to be on panel today with Tom Wilson and Chris Elphick discussing transatlantic investing across the US and UK, hosted by the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA). Ongoing takeaway: the UK is the strongest global investment hub ex-US, touting stellar academia and deeptech innovation, but more work to be done in commercial acumen.