Democratizing Cell Therapy With Dr. Ramesh Byrapaneni and Jogin Desai
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According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, India is one of the top 12 destinations worldwide for biotech activity. Seed-stage venture capital firm Endiya Partners is a player in that space, investing in product startups solving global problems.
One of its portfolio companies, Eyestem, is working to solve the problem of equal access to cell therapies. Its vision is to develop a scalable cell-therapy platform to treat incurable diseases and to democratize access to these therapies. With cell and gene therapies priced in the six figures, they’re out of reach for the majority of the global population.
In this OIS Podcast, Eyestem CEO Jogin Desai and Endiya Partners managing director Ramesh Byrapaneni, MD, discuss the mission behind Eyestem and the progress it has made so far.
Sneak preview: Desai tells host Sophia Pathai, MD, PhD, that Eyestem is laser-focused on scalability. Its lead asset, Eye-Cyte-RPE, designed to treat early-stage age-related macular degeneration, is entering first-in-human trials in Q4. Other products in development are aimed at retinitis pigmentosa and early-stage idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Listen to the podcast today to get the full story on the following:
• The Eyestem/Endiya perspective: Can democratized access truly happen?
• The Eyestem product pipeline and the interest it has already received from pharma.
• What separates Eyestem products from other cell and gene therapies.
• Endiya’s investment philosophy and the companies—including Eyestem—that align with that vision.
• Dr. Byrapaneni and Desai’s backgrounds and what led them to founding a VC and leading a cell therapy company, respectively.
Click “play” to listen.
Transcript:
Sophia Pathai, MD, PhD:
Hello again, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the OIS podcast. I’m your host Sophia Pathai, MD PhD. Now today we’re going to be discussing India, biotech and venture capital, three topics very close to my heart. And I’m delighted we have two guests with us today to help us dive through these topics. So with me today, I have Dr. Ramash Byrapaneni and Dr. Jogin Desai. Welcome to you both.
Dr. Ramash Byrapaneni and Dr. Jogin Desai:
Thanks, Sophia, it’s our pleasure to.
Sophia Pathai, MD, PhD:
It’s great to have you both. Thank you. I’m just going to set the scene about both your respective companies and then I’m going to ask you both to maybe dive into your personal careers. And yeah, let’s have a great conversation about the flourishing biotech scene in India and a lot of other great topics to discuss. So, EYESTEM is a cell therapy company founded by clinical trial cell therapy, and ophthalmology experts. Their long standing vision is to create a scalable cell therapy platform to treat incurable diseases and democratize access to these new technologies for the bottom 99% of the population globally. Endiya Partners is a VC firm based out of India that backs product startups that are solving local and global problems. Their company invests across software, deep tech, financial services and healthcare sectors. And the team comprises experts in the Health Medical IT in finance services. So as you can see, we have quite an illustrious panel with us today who are going to bring us some great insights. So I think what we’ll do is start with Dr. Ramesh, we’d love to know more about your career arc and your journey to become an MD of India partners. And then after that, maybe we can get Jogin to chime in as the CEO of EYSTEM.
Dr. Ramash Byrapaneni:
Sophia, I basically started off as a doctor like any one of you. And I did my cardiology from PCI, San Diego, and went US did my interventional cardiology fellowship, and came back and started one of the earliest private hospitals in the country almost 30 years back 1988, but a years back. So as practicing as a doctor, as a cardiologist as running the hospital, those days private healthcare is almost non existent in the country. We are one of the first 10 hospitals. But after two to four years of practice, something led to the other and suddenly decided to switch careers. And probably the ignition or stimulus. Maybe I was heading a nonprofit organization while I’m practicing as a cardiologist all tie the interest. enterpreneurs is a global organization supporting the intrapreneurship education, networking and mentorship. So most of the audience come to us and asked us we’ve spoken so you’re teaching us, you’re educating us, you’re mentoring us. But networking is okay, but where is the money. And that led me and my partner, the present partners with the Sangha to start the Hyderabad angels group as founding director. This again, 2012, almost 10 years back when the angel investments are completely new in the country. And after a couple of years, then I decided to quit practice and started the fund and became the MD along with Sati Sandra. And that’s how my transition from cardiologists practicing cardiologist to a venture capitalist, probably this may not be quite unusual in countries like US or your country. But in a country like India is totally unheard of. And prior to that, I did a few angel investments as a doctor that one of them was network plus India’s largest dialysis service provider. But I think I stopped here and then listen to jogin story before we get on to the other questions. Sophia,
Sophia Pathai, MD, PhD:
thank you so much for sharing your career arc. And I think you’re right, you’re being a pioneer, I think for physicians going into venture capital in India. And we know a few podcasts back, we discussed with some European venture capitalists, their careers, and all of them agreed as well. They’ve had these kind of nonlinear pathways into venture capital. So I think again, you’re a wonderful example of that. And then without further ado, we should hear from Jogin. So Jogin, you’re the CEO, but I know you’ve done a lot of other things before your leadership at EYESTEM, so please tell us more.
Dr. Jogin Desai:
thank you, Sofia. So, I did my medicine here in India, just like Dr. Ramesh and then went to the US. I then worked in several pharmaceutical companies and got into clinical trials and drug discovery, returned to India to work. I was part of the team that set up quintiles in India, and I ran their global cardiac safety operations. And in 2007, I went back to the US I was the CEO of randomization company known as send us which was a joint venture between quintiles and Thermo Fisher. So I ran that for about eight years. And then that’s I think about 2016 ’17 is when I said, Okay, you know what, enough is enough? Let’s find something interesting to do. And that’s when the story of EYESTEM begins. So it’s been an absolute pleasure. So far.
Sophia Pathai, MD, PhD:
Fabulous. And again, another nonlinear career with lots of leaps as well. So it’s just thrilling to hear that that kind of journey. So you touched upon iceberg. I still haven’t even I did it in the introduction. But that’s a little bit of more about the inception of the company. Tell us more about the founders. And the reason why you said that the company?
Dr. Jogin Desai:
So it’s a great question, what we did in 2016, I actually met Dr. Ragini, but to who is our Chief Medical Officer, and we were talking about a completely unrelated ophthalmology consult. And we started talking about, you know, the cell and gene therapies and how they’re going to be priced exorbitantly and out of the reach for what I call the bottom 99% of the population, because only the top 1% could afford them. Because if you look at these, even today, they are costing 300 $400,000. And about which makes no sense for anybody, I would argue beyond a certain small clip. So that’s when we thought this is a fantastic place to be in where you can actually do a lot of good, as well as create a business case that is very strong. And that’s when EYESTEM was one, our vision is to democratize access to cell therapy. And the mission is to create a scalable cell therapy platform where we would want our products to be not just 20% less, but you know, 1/10, of what somebody else does, because at that point, only can you make a difference. So we’re hoping we’re making good progress towards that, let’s see.
Sophia Pathai, MD, PhD:
And, you know, I’m sure we’ll go into the topic of access later on, because it’s something I’m passionate about as well, but like just deep dive into the platform. So I know you’ve got some indications in ophthalmology, but also bit outside of the eye as well, perhaps so we’d love to hear more about what you’re intending to do in the ophthalmology field, but also what stage you’re at at the moment.
Dr. Jogin Desai:
Okay, so we our lead product is a suspension of retinal pigment epithelium cells. We’ve got we’re, fairly near submitting to the Indian regulatory authorities for first in human trials, we’re waiting for some last bits and pieces of some animal studies that are going to come in in the next three, four months. And then we’re off to the races, as they say, are first inhuman trial for RPE. For geographic atrophy, we believe it is a little bit different from all the others for a whole host of scientific reasons. And we published a lot of that, you know, in papers. And so that’s our lead product, it just for context, in India, dry AMD, there are about 15 million people who have this kind of disease. So that’s a massive problem in India. And the other indication is for retinitis pigmentosa where we are growing photoreceptors, we started with the concept of scale from day one. So we have a unified protocol that creates both RP as well as photoreceptors. And that increases the economies of scale. And again, for India, 1.5 billion kids suffer from Rp. So even even the rare diseases are not rare, unfortunately. So these are the two main products, we anticipate our photo receptor product to go into trials 12 to 18 months after the RPE one. And while that’s going on, we’ve we’ve expanded on to alveolar cells for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. So that’s in the research and development phase, where we’re figuring out how to scale this because the level of scale and the level of the amount of dose etc, that you would need for a lung is very different from what you need the so all that is going on. So these are the three things that are on radar while we call.
Sophia Pathai, MD, PhD:
Wonderful, thanks for sharing. And, of course, we want to think more about the ophthalmology perspective, but very nice to hear that you’ve got the kind of extra ocular platform as well. But just going back to, you know, the RPE and photoreceptors, it’s wonderful that you have this technology. But let’s face it at the moment, everything I see in social media feeds or in ophthalmology conferences and trade shows, the retinal space is getting very crowded. And cell therapy is also becoming increasingly a crowded space, which is I think it’s great. It shows the level of innovation happening. So how do you see EYESTEM fitting into the sort of overall platform of cell therapies and what’s the value proposition that you’re bringing.
Dr. Jogin Desai:
So the value proposition comes in two ways. One is the product maturity, the way we have created a product is what we what I would like to call the Goldilocks product where it’s not too mature and not too immature. So it doesn’t create any safety issues, but at the same time, it is not so mature that it its efficacy is hit. So that’s the secret sauce, if you will, if you will off by EYESTEM how to create the product at the right fit. And we’ve got some fantastic animal studies which map that claim up And so that we believe will create a different differentiator as we move into first in human trials, because we will see safety as well as efficacy and those things. And the other way to differentiate is that, you know, first of all, quality is a given in this field, right, and you can’t mess around with that we were working with the FDA, we had a pre ind with the FDA, and, but at the same time, the ability to create scale, which can help provide this therapy to a larger patient population that needs it is our true differentiator, if we ended up creating another $200,000 per dollar therapy, I don’t think it’s worth it. So we need to really focus on that. And we are really focused on them.
Sophia Pathai, MD, PhD:
Nicely said, Thanks, Jogin. Good. And it looks like that value proposition that you’ve articulated as capturing the attention of investors as well. And I know congratulations are in order, because you recently announced financing. So I’d love to hear a bit more about that.
Dr. Jogin Desai:
Thank you. So first of all, you know, Dr. Ramash, here has been a very, very strong supporter by EYESTEM. And we started off this fundraising round about six months ago. And one thing led to another, the beauty of this round is, of course, the two of the most reputable venture investors in the country and their partners, as well as Kotak have participated. Without that we got three former companies who are very interested in innovation, who joined us, biologically Natco, as well as alkem. All three are multibillion dollar companies now. And they all were very interested in the platform that we are creating. And it’s very heartening to see because that having three of these plus the promoters of Kevin well, which is one of the best cdmos in the country, isn’t completely total scientific validation of what we do now. We don’t really need anybody else there is no, you know, there’s nobody better to judge our science than these companies who do this day in and day out. So we’re very excited about this.
Sophia Pathai, MD, PhD:
Well, I’m excited for you too. And it’s a great way to bring Dr. Ramesh back into the conversation. So Ramesh, we know that you have financed the EYESTEM platform, but you’ve also had some other great investments. So maybe talk to us a bit about the reason why you wanted to invest in EYESTEM and then maybe talk us through your personal investment thesis, because I think you’re you’re the only medic on your team of venture capitalists investors. So what helps you to decide when you want to make an investment. So I’d love to know a bit about EYESTEM a bit about your investment thesis and overall, India partners and what you’re looking to do in the venture space?
Dr. Ramash Byrapaneni:
Sure. Elia partners, early stage VC fund, we write the first institutional check. In most of the cases and we are more a seed investor seed in the PCB seed investor, we write anywhere from 500k to a couple of million dollars, the first check, and all the life of the company probably will write $3 million checks. But the subsequent rounds we don’t normally lead, we always after we write the first check, we expect the founders to go and show some decent traction and raise from outside investors. And when they do it, we support them. Probably in the rare situation, sometimes we may have to make difficult environments, sometimes we may have to protect them. But in the usual circumstances that surround that, having said that, we do both and tech investments, tech and healthcare investments. And I do the healthcare investments when we say healthcare is predominantly digital health, a little bit medical devices, a little bit on the life sciences. Before I dig further into the health care on the other tech investments. When we started the fund in 2015, very few early stage investors are talking about product startups, SAS platforms, or FinTech, but now became very common actually, in fact, we invested a company developing a 4d imaging radar chip for autonomous vehicles. We invested a company developing a chip for artificial intelligence. And surprisingly, none of the for getting a follow on investors, we had a lot of trouble. Very few investors in this country want to write checks for deep tech companies. The same thing with EYESTEM I’ll come to that little later. And anyhow, being coming from the background where we are myself at the SE comes from this me my partner comes from a semiconductor background with these contacts is able to support couple of small rounds from overseas investors. And right now, as we are speaking, I know it’s confidential, but I won’t tell the names that they may we may have some good news in the next one month for both these companies. So we are more a very deep tech, very product focused startup. VC fund we almost call ourselves a co founder VC is at the end of the day at my age and my partner is right with you anger to me, more than the money I think the satisfaction that comes up supporting a company, which makes a mark in the international arena is what drives us actually, when when Jogin says I don’t want my product, even if success would be to be at 200,000k and he wants to sell it $1,000 I’m not the one who will definitely I will never say no to that, because at the end of the day, even if I stem doesn’t become a unicorn charging that miles, but it can impact 1000s of patients that use us the real satisfaction as much as you satisfaction to Jogin. So, when I said we are predominantly digital health, very detailed medical devices, very little life sciences, the reason is very few companies from India, on the medical devices brand and life sciences side have taken companies globally. You may ask me the same thing on the digital health also, but digital health at least India has a large market. Whereas in medical devices with all the complexity or the life sciences companies, drug discovery, small molecules biosimilars, or cell therapy companies, after going to the all that pain of seven years, 10 years going to regulatory pathways, clinical trials, the entire world has to be your market, you can’t just say I will sell in India. So that’s the reason deployment and also the market is when I say market, the investment ecosystem is not still ready to support real deep tech medical companies and life sciences companies. So all our investments are predominantly to the digital health. For example, we have a company called Deakin, K, a health benefits platform. We have a company called cure fit into wellness site. And we have a company called SECockpit. In chronic disease management virtually, we have a company in oncology space chronic disease, again, a tech enabled navigator navigating the patient, decoupling the knowledge from the actual delivery of healthcare whether you’re in a tier one city with good connections, doctors, or tier three city with no connections to any doctor, can he get the same treatment. And we have a company in pathology AI in pathology called sickto. In fact, we applied for FDA hopefully we’ll get into next three months is our guest. And in fact one of the largest cell count cell counters company in the world. Japanese French company called arriba signed a partnership to distribute the top is the first time a global MNCs partner with the Indian startup or distribution. And I think these are the bets are predominantly into the digital health. And we are we take a very top down approach plus a bottoms up approach when we mean what I mean was we not just look at the proposals which come to us. In fact, I was actively looking for a cell therapy company for the last seven years. Didn’t therapy company, some someone in gene therapy or even a car T therapy or biosimilars a vaccine company? And I think so we basically scout for In fact, when I look for a Carty therapy, I found a startup in IIT Mumbai, I want is very good work they have done. But again, the professor who is a founder is not even the founder, technically, great guy, good results, good initial results. But at that time, when I saw that company, the company was not even formed, he’s not willing to come out of his academics. So we actually look for deals. And that’s how I found Jogin. And obviously, I’m quite impressed with his team. And when I spoke to that advisory board who come from NIH, University of California, and the pathology professor from Oregon State Health University, I’m quite convinced the opportunity is huge. Obviously, there’s competition from US and Japan, maybe Europe. But when I invested in this company year back the quality of the rigor of their protocols, the processes, the attention to details, quite impressed, right. There’s someone in this country who will succeed. I thought this team of Jogin and Dr. Roger Lee and Rajesh Sri are the right people to backup. But I’m sure I’ve waived our thesis and why we invested in EYESTEM.
Sophia Pathai, MD, PhD:
Very comprehensive, and really gave us a flavour of not only your investment thesis, but also the principles underlying that. And I think what really resonated with me, was when you mentioned you want to see the success of EYESTEM, even if it’s not going to be a unicorn because of the population that will be serving me. It may well be of course, but let’s get your perspectives both on this because, you know, I think that’s very honorable, you know that we want to think of this almost in an impact way, right. We want to maximize the opportunity and making sure we can follow up on democratization of access Which everyone seems to talk about. And that’s what I want to ask you about, you know, I see a lot of people talking on panels or at conferences or on social media about the need to democratize access. So do you think that can truly happen? And what do you think are the potential barriers? And where do you see opportunities? And maybe you want to take it from an India perspective, and then also a global perspective. So Jogin, why don’t you give us your thoughts from, you know, being enmeshed right now in that kind of process? And then maybe, Dr. Ramesh, give us some high level overview perspective from a investor side?
Dr. Jogin Desai:
Thanks. Okay. So the first thing about scale is that it has to be built into your vision and your purpose. What do you want to do? You know, it’s, and that for us has to flow through every decision that you make. So one of the things for example, that we, you know, when we started in 2017, one of the things that people said is you could make a sheet of the RPE versus a suspension, and we chose a suspension, there were some fairly good results that are coming on, even right now they are coming out. But one of the other reasons why we chose the suspension is because the sheet is just not scalable. So we said, if that’s the only way to go, we’re not quitting, right. So so and there are a lot of other decisions that we’ve made along the way where workers was built into the decision making process. So just be front and center of your operational execution strategy. We, for example, created a unified protocol, unified protocol can create both products at the same time, it reduces the error rates, it increases the dependability of the protocols, and you get two for the price of one. So all of a sudden your your scale increases. We’re also looking at artificial intelligence, we’re looking at automation, and how to create a protocol which is less and less and less dependent on the human being, and create simple versions of the protocol, which can produce the same quality. So to answer your first question, you know, democratizing access is, if you want to go beyond the slogan, it is a duck line to walk, but it can be done as long as you’re actually purposefully, methodically going through that process. And I think, you know, if we do that the up, you know, I come back to this thing about unicorns and impact, I don’t think they are exclusive. I think if we can figure out how to service a huge section of humanity, then value will automatically be unlocked. So we’re not too worried, I think we’re on a very, very good path. And we just don’t want to be the unicorn, which doesn’t serve patients. But if we do end up serving patients, a large number of patients who end up benefiting, then we almost certainly deserve to be a unicorn and will be one. So it’s that it’s you know, you approach it from a different from the impact way, but that does not necessarily dilute the value. Impact is the way towards the budget.
Sophia Pathai, MD, PhD:
Great philosophy. Thanks for sharing that. And Dr. Ramesh, would you like to add anything?
Dr. Ramash Byrapaneni:
Yeah, I think Sophia, as of today, it’s a probably a statement we are making, that we want to provide democratize therapy, and we want to make sure lots of people will benefit. But the real test will come when the product is approved, and comes into the clinical use. Definitely India, probably the affordability is less different will charge more. But what happens tomorrow, a US company wants to distribute a product, they will say we will give $1,000 per dose, sorry, $100,000 per dose, but I will charge 500,000 per dose. But I’m sure the test of the metal will come at that time. Whether Jogins ability to say no even if you want to sell at a higher price, I want to be at lower cost. Or even for that matter, investors whether will become greedy and say no Jogin Why don’t we do that in India or fine, we are from India, let’s give it a lower price. But in the outside country, when some other large MNC is willing to market your product at a higher cost, that I think the real challenge will only come while IBC whatever I may say now, two years down the line three years down the line. But basically our philosophy is make sure as many people benefit as possible. That’s the goal, at least for me as an investor and Jogin and the rest of the team. They’re very committed to this space.
Sophia Pathai, MD, PhD:
Wonderful, but I mean a realistic perspective as well. And you know, in that answer, you also referenced the global markets and the local market. So maybe Jogin if I can go back to you, you had this very successful fundraise and you mentioned investors who basically come from an Indian base right across VCs and from big event for MNCs or Pharmaceuticals. Was that quite intentional to go to the Indian investor base? Or did you want to go more globally? And were there barriers we’d love to know, because we think we’re in this super connected world where everyone can reach out to each other. And there should be, you know, transfer knowledge and and have investments. But it does seem to me there is some localization of investments in the US in Europe. And now it seems like India, so we’d love to know your thoughts on that.
Dr. Jogin Desai:
Yeah. I mean, so in that perspective level, we’ve always been global. Right, we’ve worked with about Korea and DDP FTA was just before COVID started. So we’ve been we’ve been always global, even in my previous roles as in quintiles and send to it, we’ve always been global, working with global regulatory agencies. So let’s the outlook remains the same whether it is global or local, the documentation, there is no Indian product and global products, the same product. So that’s number one. Number two is when you we do not talk to investors based on whether local or global for me, the most important thing is can I align my philosophy with that investor. And if that aligns, then everything, whether they are local or global, doesn’t really matter. It’s so happened that we could align with people here and we it all of a sudden, you know, we run the school, we can’t accept any more money. But other than that, there was no other. I mean, we don’t have any aversion to global money, the only thing is, we’ll say it has to align with what we’re trying to do. We are looking at our clinical trial. Once we finish, once we get the first signs of early signs of success in India, we are looking to expand to Australia. So our footprint and all of that our vision or our clothes, our perspectives are always global. But certainly with a core competence of having known the Indian markets, and all of that there is no getting away getting away from that.
Sophia Pathai, MD, PhD:
And it’s wonderful that you have that perspective. And I know that there are many upcoming value inflection points for you. So just remind us in the audience of what we can hope to see in the next few months, or maybe out to the end of the year, because of course, it’s conference season, as well, for ophthalmology, so just give us a flavor of what we can expect to see from EYESTEM.
Dr. Jogin Desai:
Sure. So in the next few months, we’re hoping we’ll get the last of our animal data in there is a there are some toxicity data and all of that we are very hopeful that this is all turned out to be the right one. And once that happens, we will be looking to file a dossier with the Indian regulatory authorities. We already have a protocol that’s lined up that has been screened and submitted to the FDA. And we have in LV Prasad Eye Hospital, which is India’s best hospital for ophthalmology, who will be conducting the trial. So, the next 12 months is going to be very, very exciting for us at EYESTEM and we’ll go into a lot of fingers are going to be crossed over the next 12 months.
Sophia Pathai, MD, PhD:
I’m keeping my fingers crossed to and I’m glad you could make time for us today. I know you’ve been incredibly busy what with all the latest developments and the fundraising. So thanks for sharing the time.
Dr. Ramash Byrapaneni and Dr. Jogin Desai:
Thank you for having us.
Dr. Ramash Byrapaneni:
On the fundraising. Can I make a comment? A few comments. When this discussion came up that I still wanted to raise $78 million. Obviously, because of the paucity of time probably Jogin. Didn’t want to. We didn’t want to go to the overseas investors at this stage. Actually, the reason is, oh is an Indian company. That not just iced but no one else from India has done this kind of work before. And real landmarks like the clinical trials haven’t yet started. And most of the VCs usually invest locally US investors will be comfortable with the US while I do agree like you globalization happening the investment level. But I thought to myself and told Jurgen maybe we should look at India investments of India investors only for this round. And maybe as you rightly said, when the real inflection point happens when we find all the animal clients are true, and we are ready to go for human data or even for that matter, the present money is, you know, for the human data’s trials, maybe once we get maybe 10 patients or 50 patient data out, and that may be the time when the global investors may want to look at the data because that data is far more concrete at that stage. And coming to the next question, why did we do strategic investments took money from strategists rather than financial investors. Fortunately, or unfortunately helps. Unfortunately, none of the early stage investors in India are willing to do a life sciences investment. Post COVID. If you talk to maybe 100 early stage investors everyone wants to healthcare investments. But the meaning of healthcare investments means predominantly digital health platforms delivering consultations daily Very medicines or home tests. But when it comes to some kind of serious medical device, or life sciences company A, unfortunately, none from the Indian investment community are willing to write the checks. In fact, we approached two of them actually, and among the Indian investors who can really understand health care, but one call, we realize that their ability to take a decision, all said and done, these investments are tricky, these investments are tough. It can can be all or none phenomenon. With all our good faith, all the animal experiments are good so far, in the next three months, we’ll get the results of the balance, any one of them can go wrong. And probably we need to repeat the study maybe one more year, or maybe two more years, that was always there. So very few people have the domain expertise or the understanding that these animal trials is not sequenced yet small animals, large animals, human data at any stage there can be. So then me and Jogin given brainstormed and then said, Dr. Ramesh, why don’t we talk to friends in the pharma industry? Can you believe we approached only three investors in Hyderabad and two of them wrote checks NAPCO pilosity, only one of them said that he liked the product. He liked joking steam, but he said the valuation and the the percentage stake he will get does not you know, that’s the reason he said I need more ownership. And I think if I’m not mistaken, Jogin can only approach three other people. So out of the six people, four people wrote the checks. And that has led to only six presentations. One visit of dog into Hyderabad, one visit to Mumbai why I brought up the subject is in the Indian ecosystem. Okay, this is may not be evolved air, but in the pharma of families, who are first generation families, second generation, people are really open to take decisions like this. That’s the reason I want to bring bring this subject. So startups, especially in the life sciences need not think there’s no investment. There’s no money available in this country. And many pharma companies, founders CEOs are open to make risky bets like this, provided they like the product, provided they like the team and the capabilities of team to make it happen.
Sophia Pathai, MD, PhD:
That was a great answer, because actually, I was going to ask you that very question about, you know, investing in the Indian, for VCs and for entrepreneurs in India and the global perspective on that. So thank you for sharing, I think a lot of the audience will be wondering about the Indian ecosystem, who they can approach and how the risk appetite is like. So thanks for sharing that. And just as a very practical tip, are you open to receiving pitches from entrepreneurs in the space globally that India partners might want to review? And if you are, what’s the best way of getting in touch with your Dr. Ramash?
Dr. Ramash Byrapaneni:
Sure, we don’t mind looking at wherever the teams are located. Or sometimes the question comes, are we relevant? For example? Okay, these days post COVID, everything became Doom, everybody’s comfortable, but still sometimes. It always up with someone from London, someone from Israel, someone from San Francisco, there’s so much available in those parts of the world. But are we relevant, but otherwise, we’re open to looking at startups from anywhere in the world. In fact, going forwards to find three, we wanted to make sure our presence is global in the sense that we maybe one or two partners may be from different parts of the world. I think that’s absolutely otherwise sitting here thinking that as support someone from London or some someone from San Francisco may not be except writing the text may not be useful. That’s the reason. The next one we want to enlarge our team so that people are on the ground to support the startups. one more suggestion for would be entrepreneurs or enterpreneurs. Reaching out to venture capitalists while cold calls are important they can directly email. So always better if someone knows that knows them personally, and they put in a interact recall, that will be so valuable actually, in fact, why in fact, Joe can actually I didn’t tell you, in fact, I asked personal maarif from CCMP. Please recommend one startup in your entire he probably I don’t know whether I should be official. Please recommend someone I want to be whom you like the best. And then he said you should wait Jogin. So that I think, obviously not that I did meditation because of that, that make me be attentive to what Jogin is doing. And when Jogin said, these are my three advisory board members, many times you see on the startups pictures, you see three or four board members who doesn’t know much, they’re not involved actually. Whereas when I spoke to my handler Ra from nih or whose other person from NIH, couple couple parties happy and then I spoke to the professor from Oregon’s health state university, I got a real feeling that what this is cutting edge tech now so that that references are so crucial actually, no venture capital was very closed and space, everyone knows each other. And in sub directly approaching someone whom they work whom they’ve seen their work, if they can put in a word, I’m sure that really brings in the the appropriate attentiveness from the any VC in the world.
Sophia Pathai, MD, PhD:
That’s a really different if I may say perspective, because I think the podcast that was just Episode 336, if I’m not mistaken, the venture capital panel in Europe, some of the venture capitalist from Europe, said that they don’t mind cold emails, and they don’t mind having just the, you know, complete cold outreach. So I think it’s what I’ve learned from that it’s a blended approach, right. And every venture capitalist is different. But it’s always great to know how they can best get that introduction.
Dr. Ramash Byrapaneni:
While we’ve definitely look at cold emails, whatever, whichever email comes from any one, and escalated it as a deck will definitely spend, but sometimes the deck you will not be able to communicate. Whereas the real work, what you’re doing may not be possible, your passion may not come out very clearly in the presentation, and some so that probably a referral from someone else will validate that thought process, actually otherwise. Some decks are fabulous, we can make out but some decks may not be great, but they may be doing great work. So if someone doesn’t want to miss that opportunity, using the combination approach.
Sophia Pathai, MD, PhD:
it just highlights the value of personal connections and building out your network. And, Jogin, it was so you know, relevant when you mentioned earlier how you got to meet Dr. Rajni, just through a completely different topic. But he actually that’s how you got to meet her. And so maybe just some final words from you, Jogin? You know, you’re a CEO at an early stage company, any words maybe of inspiration for those who are about to embark on the journey, or who are just getting started anything you want to share with a lot of the entrepreneurs who listen to this show?
Dr. Jogin Desai:
Well, I mean, it’s been an amazing journey. For me, I’ve been I’ve handled two global business units before this one global company before this, but this has been a journey of its own. Once you find your purpose, once and you’re passionate about it, I don’t think anything else matters, then work isn’t really work. It’s just, you know, fun. So I would highly encourage entrepreneurs to look at the impact that they want to create, versus the money that they want to earn. Because that’s the latter is transitory Well, well, the former is the one that you that will keep you going and going and going especially because as any entrepreneur knows, there will be dips, right? You will get into to a point where things are not working as well as you expect, and you need the energy at that time to keep going. And at that time, only purpose can save you not here sort of intend to have some money or whatever. So I would say find that and everything else will follow.
Sophia Pathai, MD, PhD:
Wonderful, so find your impact connections and purpose. So today’s show was all about India, biotech, venture capital and so much more. So Dr. Jogin Desai and Dr. Ramesh Byrapaneni, thank you so much for joining us today on the OIS podcast and wish you both all the best in your future endeavors. Bye for now.
Dr. Ramash Byrapaneni and Dr. Jogin Desai:
Thank you. Thank you for having us.