By centralizing oversight at the hub, the model prevents teams from becoming emotionally attached to a single asset. This structure allows leadership to make objective, data-driven decisions to terminate unpromising programs without it being seen as a personal or career failure for the team involved.
iZora's CEO identifies a "sweet spot" of three to five high-quality programs. This size is large enough to benefit from risk diversification but small enough to avoid losing focus and stretching resources thin. It provides a concrete framework for balancing ambition with manageable execution and capital requirements.
The field of ophthalmology is particularly well-suited for a hub-and-spoke model because it utilizes a wide range of treatment modalities (small molecules, biologics, devices, gene therapy). This allows a central hub to leverage shared expertise in areas like ocular delivery and regulatory pathways across multiple, diverse spokes.
This structure offers fundraising flexibility by appealing to two distinct investor types. Some investors prefer the diversified, lower-risk profile of the central hub, while others want direct exposure to a specific high-potential asset or disease area within a subsidiary spoke. This broadens the potential capital pool.