5 ms·
If Thiel were being contrarian, he's invest in a biotech company that WAS merely trying to iterate incrementally-- it will be very hard for him to find such a c
by cryoshon 11y ago
If Thiel were being contrarian, he's invest in a biotech company that WAS merely trying to iterate incrementally-- it will be very hard for him to find such a company that actually needs funding, as only big pharma is interested in that kind of iteration. Biotech startups are almost exclusively (to my knowledge, exclusively) long shots with potential large upswings. Nobody is working on incremental improvements. Emphasizing a company that claims it won't have any failures or waste is probably indicative of ignorance rather than some grand enlightened-investment stratagem.
- srunni 11y ago> Biotech startups are almost exclusively (to my knowledge, exclusively) long shots with potential large upswings. And it's these sorts of long shots that he wants to avoid. He thinks that Stemcentrx has more certainty in its outcome than other biotechs, despite also having a potentially large upswing. Like you, I was not particularly impressed by Stemcentrx from the information in the article. But neither of us have any other visibility into what they're actually doing. Perhaps it will end up as another Halcyon Molecular, or perhaps it will live up to its hype - only time will tell. Given that Thiel has the money (and hopefully the humility) to hire experts who know far more about this topic than him (or either of us, for that matter), I hope that things work out - patients and investors alike will benefit.