Bringing Polymath Power to Biotech Banking

Bringing Polymath Power to Biotech Banking 

By: John Armstrong, PhD, Managing Director

A ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’ may be able to fix your leaky plumbing, install a new door frame, or expand your deck, but you wouldn’t hire him or her to build your new, custom home.  You’d hire a master builder for that – someone not only with formal training and expertise but with extensive experience – because a custom home represents a major investment and something you want to enjoy for a long time. That formal training and expertise can be gained from a number of places, including higher education and professional licensing or certification programs, and sometimes a career calls for being an expert in more than one discipline.

In college, dual expertise can come from committing to a double major (Accounting and Finance, Economics and Business Management, Marketing and Communications), while a graduate degree in biomedical engineering provides similar cross-functional expertise. Earning multiple graduate and professional degrees goes even further and defines a true polymath. For instance, physician-scientists still treat patients, but they also explore new treatments using the scientific method in carefully designed clinical studies.  They could not do this without formal training and education as both physicians and scientists.  History has shown that significant achievement in complex fields often requires expertise in more than one discipline.  Einstein’s theory of relativity tying space and time together represented an evolutionary step forward in mathematics, physics, and astronomy, but it relied on the calculus, which was independently developed by philosopher-scientist Leibniz and theologian-scientist Newton.

These are examples of polymaths, i.e., masters of two or more disciplines, and the exponential increase in value they bring to their professions comes from years of focus and discipline dedicated to gaining dual expertise.  Whether philosopher-scientists or scientist-physicians, these rarities bring firepower and enhanced capability to any project they take on and any room they enter.

Enter the scientist-bankers from Outcome Capital.

At the Life Sciences Strategic Advisory and Investment Banking firm, Outcome Capital, the Biotech practice leaders are all FINRA Securities Principals or Representatives holding the appropriate licenses, but beyond their banking expertise, this team is composed of serial entrepreneurs and Big Pharma former CEOs, CFOs, VPs, and Directors, with leadership roles in business Development, Research, Global Marketing, and Medical Affairs.  Their experience comes from some of the biggest firms in the industry, including Novartis, Pfizer, Bayer, Johnson & Johnson, Schering-Plough, and Becton-Dickinson, to name a few.   With an average of more than 25 years each in Life Sciences education, biotech operations leadership, and investment experience, these licensed securities professionals also hold advanced degrees in biochemistry, oncology, microbiology, immunology, pharmacology, and biophysics.

If there is an investment bank that can recognize and leverage the science and true potential of your technology and create a market-aligned path toward value enhancement and increased probability to benefit patients, it is this team.  The scientist-bankers at Outcome Capital define an evolutionary step forward in the investment banking industry, and they have raised the expectations of biotech entrepreneurs seeking something better than the status quo.  With its cadre of PhD-trained scientist-bankers, Outcome Capital brings polymath power to biotech banking.