MATTER announces programs focused on innovation in the life sciences

Chicago’s life sciences ecosystem is taking off: In the first half of this year, AveXis sold for $8.7 billion, the largest acquisition of a Chicago-area biotechnology company to date. Iterum Therapeutics, Xeris Pharmaceuticals and Aptinyx all went public, as did Exicure (whose CEO, David Giljohann, will be at MATTER in October for Tales from the Trenches). Between 2013 and 2017, 44% of funding raised by startups spun out of Illinois universities went to the biomedical and biotech sectors.

At MATTER, we’ve observed this uptick in life sciences activity firsthand, with a growing number of life sciences startups joining our community. (We recently profiled several such startups.) Chicago is also home to world-class research universities and medical schools, laboratories, and Fortune 500 pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Many of these organizations are MATTER partners, and they are increasingly interested in engaging with startups and with each other.

We’re thrilled to announce today two new programs designed to facilitate collaborations between, and provide additional support for, this growing community of life sciences innovators. These new programs build on MATTER’s existing programs for the life sciences, like Chicago Innovation Mentors (CIM) — a six-month, team-based mentorship program that surrounds faculty and student entrepreneurs in the life sciences with the expertise of industry mentors.

MATTER Workshop Series: Innovating in the Life Sciences

Equipping innovators with the knowledge and skills they need to be successful is one of MATTER’s most important program offerings. The MATTER Curriculum is designed to help startups of all stages and innovators from all healthcare sectors develop competencies critical to business success.

While building a life sciences company requires many of these same competencies, innovators working in this space also face a unique set of business challenges throughout their commercialization journey. To help life sciences innovators tackle these challenges, we are launching a new series of workshops this October focused on development and business considerations specific to the life sciences.

Workshops in this series — Innovating in the Life Sciences — are open to the public and are available to attend both in-person at MATTER and online through our virtual classroom. Below are Innovating in the Life Sciences workshops scheduled for this fall:

October 5: Valuation — Building a Credible Story and Forecast
October 25: Defining a CMC Strategy — How and Where to Begin
November 8: Utilizing Market Insights for Medical Device Development
November 15: Building a Robust Investigational New Drug (IND) Package
November 16: Structuring Conversations with Life Sciences Partners
December 7: Building Relationships — Scientific & Commercial Founders

Sign up for the MATTER mailing list to find out when new workshops are added.

MATTER Life Sciences Collaborative

This fall, we are also piloting a new program: the MATTER Life Sciences Collaborative. Through this program, teams of industry stakeholders, investors and subject matter experts will guide early stage, life sciences-focused technologies through the process of defining and vetting their development plan — a key asset in the life of an early stage company that ultimately becomes their blueprint for translation. We’ll share more details and an update on the program’s progress in the coming months.

If you have questions or would like to get involved in MATTER’s life sciences programs, please reach out to our Senior Program Director, Arun Bhatia, at arun@matter.health.