Business success in the life sciences: an investment banker's perspective

Our firm recently opened a London-based European office. As we are passionate about bringing paradigm-shifting technologies to patients, we were excited by the opportunity to facilitate transatlantic collaborations between Boston’s biotech hub and the life sciences-rich Oxford/Cambridge/London ‘golden triangle’, writes Outcome Capital’s managing director Oded Ben-Joseph.

In preparation, we spent considerable time talking with biotech and pharma companies as well as academic research labs throughout the UK. Our aim was to get a more in-depth understanding of the local industry, its strengths, weaknesses and particular needs, as well as to look for technologies where we could provide strategic expertise in helping to capture their full value.

While the UK continues to generate exciting and potentially world-leading science, representing potential future ‘stars,’ we found that there remains a greater number of companies facing significant challenges in terms of successfully progressing technology to shareholder return.