Investing in Natural Products

Published as a SIDEBAR to: HOT TOPICS IN PHARMACOGNOSY: The Evolution of Dolastatin 10 Derivatives as Sources of ADC Warheads By David Newman, DPhil

By Cedric Pearce, PhD

After 25 years of working as a scientist in in­creasingly entrepreneurial environments, includ­ing positions at early stage platform and drug discovery/development companies, a late-night chance encounter in 2000 at Raleigh Durham airport with Arthur Pappas, a life science investor, was my in­troduction into the world of venture capital.

At the time, I had closed the Research Triangle Park natural products discovery site for a New York biotech­nology company and, subsequent to airport meeting, started working for Art Pappas as Vice President for Discovery Technologies; this experience resulted in daily encounters with life science entrepreneurs. And although I found this work fascinating, the smell of a working lab was calling, and after my sabbatical year from the bench, I founded Mycosynthetix, Inc with the goal of exploring bioactive compounds from an exten­sive fungus collection that I acquired.

When I joined the Pappas group, they had already es­tablished a strong reputation for their investment strat­egy, which was (and still is) primarily focused on life science opportunities. Pappas continued to invest in very successful early stage companies, and Art himself has been associated with approximately 22 new drugs being brought forward to the market.

Obviously for the natural products community, this lat­est success for Pappas Ventures (www.pappas-capital. com/pappas-capital-portfolio-company-velosbio-to-be-acquired-by-merck/) is significant on many levels. The initial seminal contribution of Bob Pettit and his col­leagues is discussed in Dave Newman’s article. The further medicinal chemistry, and antibody attachment, has produced a very promising anticancer treatment. This is also instructive, especially given that the cur­rent (US) patenting situation for natural products and generating new active analogues through synthesis or by using biological approaches, and considering novel targeting methods are all methods which can leverage our contributions.

One of the roles of venture capital investment is to take on risky projects and to develop novel technolo­gies for the good of society. Pappas Ventures went an extra step and were involved in founding VelosBio. They invested in a number of financing rounds as VelosBio developed its pipeline, including the crucial VLS-101 (velosbio.com/our-science/pipeline#vls-101). The ac­quisition by Merck (www.businesswire.com/news/ home/20201105005543/en/Merck-to-Acquire-Velos­Bio) demonstrates the significance of the product pipe­line and the skill of Pappas and his colleagues.

This example should be kept in mind as promising natural products discoveries, with some potential to be used clinically or in other fields, are made; citing this in grant applications and in your own presentations to in­vestor groups can only help to highlight the importance of what this group has to offer.

This example should be kept in mind as promising natural products discoveries, with some potential to be used clinically or in other fields, are made; citing this in grant applications and in your own presentations to investor groups can only help to highlight the importance of what this group has to offer.