Claims that AI will slash drug development from 12 years to 2 are unrealistic due to the biological necessity of long-term patient monitoring for safety and efficacy. The truly underestimated impact of AI is the massive productivity gain from deploying AI agents to augment every employee across the entire pharma value chain.
Founders with deep scientific backgrounds often make a critical error: they become tunnel-visioned on the next scientific experiments. When approaching investors, they spend too little time planning how to assemble a team to fill their own skill gaps and how to create a viable business and revenue model.
While VCs currently favor asset-focused biotechs, the 'platform' model is vital. It involves iterating on a single mechanism for years to build a deep knowledge base, which eventually becomes a powerful, efficient product engine. This long-term strategy is currently overlooked by investors seeking quick returns.
A common founder mistake is to lead with a product or drug idea. However, a specialist investor's initial focus is on the founder's ability to deeply and clearly articulate the problem or gap they are addressing. The elegance of the proposed solution is evaluated only after the problem is well-defined.
A major investment opportunity lies in companies that use AI to extract the full information density from routine medical procedures. For example, analyzing a mammogram not just for cancer but also for arterial calcification, which indicates cardiovascular risk—a critical learning that is currently often discarded.