Be ready

Companies with multiple options achieve the best outcomes. I have seen this proven true time and time again over the decades.

Even if the most logical outcome for your discovery platform company is an IPO, active dialogue with potential Pharma partners will inform your various programs, and also can provide opportunities for validating partnerships and non-dilutive capital. Even if the best outcome for your company is an acquisition by a strategic, having an S-1 on file keeps the pressure on the potential buyers.

“Be ready” is a broad mandate. Are you in periodic contact with strategics? With public company investors? What is the state of your accounting? Have you documented the clinical and manufacturing accruals at quarter-end? Or will you need to backfill several years from now, when contacts at your CDMOs and CROs have moved on? How are your internal controls today? It’s not just reducing the risk of fraud, it’s about having low-friction, well-documented systems in place to make sure that things are done right.

Just as it is critical to maintain an active and ongoing dialog with potential investors and strategics, it is also important that a company's operational systems aren't an impediment to completing a transaction. While the team can always catch up and/or backfill on these points it will take extra time and money - more so than if it's done along the way. Be ready!