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LIFESCIENCELEADER.COM APRIL 2014 43 GOLUMBESKI: More of the former — the sheer number. Up to now, we've been smart, fortunate, blessed, however you want to look at it, but we've recruited some really great partners: OncoMed, Epizyme, Agios, Quanticel, and so on. We could do five more deals a year if we could find the companies. KOBERSTEIN: You mean companies with a bona fide drug in development, from what you've said. Is there a standout criterion or factor that helps you select them out of the crowd of contenders? GOLUMBESKI: We probably all have our own biases as with our training and background, but there's no doubt in my mind that in the end, it is all about the team, the data, and the molecule. Even the best team cannot turn a bad molecule into anything, and a bad team can really destroy a good molecule — you really need both, and some luck. What drives us to invest? It's data and a belief that the data will translate to a meaningful drug. And I think over time, you get a meaningful drug, and then one realizes value. In the short term, investors can make tons of money on premature excitement about a drug. I've seen data about companies that never produced anything but made money anyway. But it's not just about money. In the end, we feel we only really succeed when we get new drugs to patients, and the patients benefit. Thus ends Part One of The Art of Optimizing Small Biotech Market Caps editorial roundtable. Part Two of the discussion will appear in our next issue, covering the effects of valuation and market cap on companies as they grow and ways they can optimize their value at every stage in their development. More case studies and experience-based lessons arose in the remain- ing half of this thought-leader discussion, along with worries about drug-candidate shortages and unsustainable investment cycles. Part Two shows the panel detailing the importance of managing company and scientific communica- tions, establishing relationships, winning patient- advocate support, spending cash carefully, and other actions companies can and should take to optimize their value and growth. L Right now, everyone's taking capital market happy pills, and the word risk seems like a distant dream. A L L A N S H A W Managing Director, Life Science Advisory Practice at Alvarez & Marsal LLC B i o _ I n v e s t o r _ F o r u m . i n d d 9 Bio_Investor_Forum.indd 9 3 / 2 4 / 2 0 1 4 3 : 5 8 : 5 3 P M 3/24/2014 3:58:53 PM