Keep pulling the thread on Ben Liu.
Formation Bio's business model is to acquire already-discovered drugs rather than performing its own discovery.
Formation Bio partnered with Joe Jiménez, the former CEO of Novartis, to create a fund named Aditum Bio.
Formation Bio raised its Series C from investors including Sam Altman and Lockhee, which enabled it to start acquiring drugs directly onto its balance sheet.
On average, only 30% of Phase 2 clinical trials are successful.
Phase 3 clinical trials have an average success rate of 60%, with a 40% chance of failure.
Ben Liu believes a biotech company must be able to fund at least 10 drug programs to make the risk-adjusted decision to not sell a single successful asset.
Ben Liu's 'Uneven Frontiers' framework posits that AI will impact life sciences in a specific order: first drug discovery, then toxicology, and finally clinical efficacy.
PureTech licensed a drug from Eli Lilly, developed it in a new company called Karuna Therapeutics, and this company was subsequently acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb for $14 billion.
In a single year, revenue from Eli Lilly's drug Mounjaro exceeded the combined revenue of OpenAI and Anthropic.
Ben Liu predicts that 'healthspan drugs,' which aim to help people live longer and healthier lives, will be the next major impactful drug class after GLP-1s.
The FGF18 drug licensed by Formation Bio is the first to demonstrate statistically significant, dose-dependent cartilage regeneration in a 5-year, 549-patient randomized controlled trial.
In a 5-year clinical trial of FGF18, none of the patients who received the intended dose required a knee replacement.