Latest / The BioHub - by Avetix / Episode 76 - Abid Ansari - CFO of General Oncology

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Episode 76 - Abid Ansari - CFO of General Oncology · The BioHub - by Avetix

0:05
So welcome back to the episode of the Bio Hub.
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Today, we're delighted to welcome Abid Ansari, CFO of
0:11
General Oncology, who are at the forefront of tackling some of
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the most urgent challenges in oncology.
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As CFO, Abid plays a critical role in driving the company's
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business development and financial strategy and
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supporting its bold vision for growth.
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And Abid's career spans more than two decades in life
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sciences, during which he's raised over 450 million to fuel
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innovation. Prior to General Oncology, Abid
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held three CFO roles in biotech as well as prior roles at GSK
0:40
and Medimmune. So join us today as we'll talk
0:43
through the science at General Oncology, the fundraising
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environment currently, and Abby's journey.
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So Abid, thanks so much for coming on.
0:51
How are you? I'm doing great.
0:52
Thanks a lot for having me. It's good to.
0:54
It's always good to see you. Yeah, you too.
0:58
Look, I know we've known each other for a few years, but could
1:00
you take us through your journey from the beginning?
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What first drew you to the life science space and what inspired
1:07
your transition from finance to company building?
1:11
Yeah, sure. So I, I originally started my
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career as an engineer and I really was pushed hard into
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engineering by, by my father. I was a chemical engineer.
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And so growing up, you know, in high school and even in college
1:25
through the engineering curriculum at Purdue, you don't
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take any, you know, finance or accounting related classes.
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So I was working for Exxon Mobil in their cooperative education
1:36
program and they had me do a discounted cash flow analysis on
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this $15,000, you know, mass spectrometer.
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And it was my first exposure to finance and I loved it.
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My, my brain just kind of spiraled out of control.
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I started thinking about all the different things you can do with
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a discounted cash flow analysis and that led me down the path of
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going to Business School and and then also getting ACPA along the
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way I interned. So while I was in Business
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School, I interned with a company in Indiana called Dow
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Agro Sciences. And that was my first foray into
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into biotech, thinking about, you know, biology and crop
2:25
protection and improving yields. And it was, you know, compared
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to, you know, manufacturing and producing gas and kerosene and
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meat and those sorts of things, it was much more complicated,
2:39
much more regulated and thinking through how biotech relates to
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developing medicines, improves healthcare.
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It was all just really, really fascinating to me.
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So I, I spent a little bit of time in especially chemicals
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company coming out of Business School, but then I started at
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Medimmune and I really, really, I just loved it and spent
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several years in a variety of finance and BD roles within
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Medimmune and GSK. And I always wanted to do lots
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of different things within finance and BD while I was in at
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Medimmune and GSK and learned as much as I could, you know,
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through those experiences. But in the back of my head, I
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always wanted to work for a smaller company and, and have
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much more of an impact developing medicines at at a
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small biotech. So what was really interesting
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was at Precision Biosciences, they were developing a program
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for severe haemophilia A at the time.
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And the program was just so fascinating to me because it was
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targeting what's called an intron 22 inversion, where a
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portion of your DNA is actually reverted.
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It's located in in the wrong position and that's the exact
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same inversion and mutation that my two boys have.
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So that's that's really what led me into the small biotech space
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is being able to have a really significant influence and make a
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difference in a much smaller setting and being attracted to
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this really cool and interesting science that could have a
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profound effect on my family. Yeah, I love that.
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And, and looking back, do you were there any pivotal moments
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or mentors in particular that shaped your path into biotech
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leadership? Yeah, I think, I think from a
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mentorship perspective, Lisa, I mean, when you make the jump
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from big pharma to small biotech, there are lots of
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things that you you need to learn.
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I, I would say a big mentor for me was Steven Webster.
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So he was the CFO of Spark Therapeutics.
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He's on a number of boards. And you know, when I was making
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that transition, I'd never talked to a bank before, right?
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I, I'd never dealt with crossed over investors or mutual funds.
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And Steven was great because he was willing to pick up the phone
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and answer my text messages. And, you know, no question was,
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was too dumb. And so I, I always appreciated
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him and the help and guidance that, that he provided me
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throughout my, my journey. And then also early on in my
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career, you know, I've met him. Jim Kelly was Jim Kelly was the
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ideal kind of first biotech boss that any, you know, finance
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professional should would want to have.
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I mean, he was, he was tough, he was demanding, but he was the
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one that encouraged me to get, get my CPA.
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And he's always provided me really good career advice and
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always stretched me while I was at Medimmune.
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And I did, you know, 3 or 4 different roles, a number of
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them with him while I was at Medimmune.
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And he was really great at challenging you and stretching
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your capabilities. And yeah, he, he was fantastic.
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The in terms of, you mentioned pivotal moments.
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The, the one thing I, I think that's been just really pivotal
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for me that I think about is, you know, all the people that
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I've been able to, to hire and work with in, in my career.
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I've really enjoyed seeing them get, you know, stretched and
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challenged and work on different things and, and progressing and,
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and get promoted and go on to do, you know, lots of
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interesting and, and cool things in their careers.
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You know, Bonnie Rora came to Precision Biosciences as you
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know, as an associate director of FPAPNA, and now she's a
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senior director and she's getting ACPA.
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You know, May Burress came on board as and SEC reporting
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manager and she's a vice president, you know, a corporate
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controller now. Senior Bundaroo came on board as
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the director of IT and he's the vice president of operations
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now. So I've really appreciated, you
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know, the mentoring and the professional development and,
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and the coaching and teaching that I've been able to do the
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past, you know, 9-10 years of my career.
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So I mean, what do you see is general oncology's key
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differentiators in such a crowded oncology landscape?
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So I think for us, there's really four key differentiated
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features. The first one is we're using
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these 4 constituents, so BCNU, melfolin, ascorbic acid and
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hydroxyl carbelini in a way that creates a mechanism of action
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that is completely unique and proprietary to general oncology.
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There are some similarities with DDRDNA DNA damage response, but
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really the the mechanism is unique, is proprietary to us and
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and no one else is, is doing something like this.
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So that's kind of the first thing.
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The second thing is our approach is designed for long term
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survival. So a patient receives 2 cycles
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of GO-4 and they are done with treatment.
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And we will be presenting data from the phase one study at ESMO
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in a couple of weeks and we look forward to sharing those results
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with with everyone. The third thing is our approach.
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So GO-4, the approach is expansive and in the current
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phase one study we targeted Bracha patients so far, but the
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mechanism is expansive and we'll be opening up enrollment to non
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Bracha patients in the phase one dose expansion study and we're
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excited to see what those results will be, you know, 6 to
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12 months from now. So that's kind of the third big
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thing. And then the fourth thing
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probably most important is our approach is safe 0 long term
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side effects so far. And again, this is supported by
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the mechanism and the hypotheses that results from the underlying
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mechanism that we've tested in in the phase one study.
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So again, it's a proprietary mechanism of action.
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Our approach is designed for long term survival.
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Our approach is expansive. We're going to be expanding into
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non Broca patients and our approach is safe.
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Those are really four key differentiators in comparison to
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to others in the field. Nice.
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Very good. I'm to the fundraising aspect.
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So I guess it's particularly challenging right now with with
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how the market is. What's been your philosophy on
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raising capital and what have you found to be the most
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important factors in building investor confidence?
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Yeah, sure. I think, I think fundraising,
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you know, it, it is a very challenging environment.
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It's been challenging for the last couple of years.
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There's all these statistics out there at the last, you know, 20
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IP OS, all but one or two are trading under issuance.
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Valuations have been coming down the past couple of years.
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I think it in terms of fundraising, there's a couple of
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things that, you know, small companies need to keep in mind.
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I think the first thing is you want to make sure that you're
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keeping your options open, you know, especially given just
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what's happening in the overall marketplace, you know, making
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sure you are not only relying on new investors, but you are also
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relying on your existing shareholders to to keep things
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moving. I also think you need to explore
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interesting partnership, partnerships and licensing
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arrangements. You know, obviously talking to
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the traditional institutional VCs, making sure you're getting
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feedback from them and incorporating that feedback into
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your story. I think it's really important,
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but also targeting other types of investors, family offices,
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high net worth individuals, I mean, general oncology, we've
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raised 16.6 million to date all through high net worth
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individuals. So I think keeping your, your,
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your financing options open, I'm thinking about royalty financing
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that could be a potential path, even debt financing, looking at
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grants, I've, I've come across companies where you know,
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they've gotten very significant state funded grants and that's
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allowed them to attract capital from other institutional VCs.
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So I think especially in this environment, keeping all these
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different options, partnering, licensing, different types of
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investors that you can talk to and meet, I think keeping all
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those options open and seeing which ones come to fruition is
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is really, really important. And the other thing is, you
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know, because keeping all of these options is so important.
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Maybe you're you're attending conferences that you wouldn't
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have attended before. Maybe there's local conferences
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that attract, you know, local high net worth individuals or
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Angel investors that could be worth attending.
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Maybe there's some of the lesser known, the PD conferences that
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are worth attending that could attract some, you know, more of
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your smid cat companies that you that could be open to, to
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partnership. So I think that's all of that
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is, is really important in terms of investor confidence.
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You know, I, I've, I've had the, the pleasure of dealing with,
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you know, a variety of boards, a lot of different types of
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investors. You know what, when I think of
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gaining their confidence, I think the number one thing is
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you need to be very transparent and need you need to make sure
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that you're aligned with your board and your shareholders on
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your goals and really how you're prioritizing all the different
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projects and your portfolio in general.
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I think it's really important to make sure that there's, you
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know, constant communication that you're having with not only
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your board, but with your existing shareholders and
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keeping them in tune with how you're tracking against your
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goals and how you're thinking about different projects within
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the within the portfolio. So I think that's kind of, you
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know, step #1 and then the second thing, which seems
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obvious, but sometimes is it to, to small companies that you're
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working with, it's it's execution.
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You know, if you commit to delivering something, it's, it's
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delivering on, on what you said you were going to deliver.
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It's those, you know, I and D goals.
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It's getting those phase one studies started in timely
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fashion. It's you know, your
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manufacturing goals, making those, making sure all of those
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you're in alignment with your board and your shareholders and
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executing against those goals. I think is, is super important.
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And then the the last thing which I think is, you know,
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especially in this environment, and I know this is easier said
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than done, but having that strategic partnership in place
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with a large pharmaceutical company or Smidcap company that
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can not only provide you with capital to help you progress
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your portfolio, but you know, it's really helping you provide
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that intellectual capital, right?
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It's that Big Brother partnership that can help you
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with clinical development strategy, thinking of different
15:19
ways to execute your research portfolio and perform different
15:23
experiments. You know, having that in place
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can instill a lot of confidence into your investor and and
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shareholder base. Very good.
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And do you think there's any particular tricks of the trade
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that you've learned over the years that you think other
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biotech leaders could benefit from?
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Yeah, for sure. And and listen, you learn
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through failure. I, I think that's, that's
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something I, I, you know, I obviously in my career, I
15:53
haven't done everything important, everything right.
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And I, I think there's a number of things that I know I've
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learned in, in my career that can benefit folks.
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I think, you know, when you're thinking about sort of the
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fundraising environment, you know, the, the biggest thing
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everybody will tell you is, you know, be able to attract a lead
16:14
investor or somebody that that's going to do diligence under half
16:18
of all the other shareholders that are participating in a
16:21
particular round. And I, I think it's really
16:25
important for companies and, and I know this can be maybe tough
16:29
to think about, especially in this environment, but you want
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to make sure you're doing, you, you're doing your own diligence
16:35
on a potential lead investor. And I know I, I found it really
16:41
valuable to talk to other portfolio companies that a
16:45
particular lead investor has led.
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And it really helps you know what you're getting into.
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You know, what are the, what are the, you know, some of the
16:52
challenges that you're going to face and what are some, maybe
16:56
some pitfalls to, to watch out for and look for as you're going
16:59
through and progressing through the relationship.
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So it's not only the lead investor doing diligence on you
17:05
and the company, but you know, you should be doing the same
17:08
thing on a lead investor and, and the partner, you know, if
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you, if you're thinking about a partnership with a GSK or a
17:14
Pfizer or a Merc, you know, you should talk to other companies
17:19
that those companies have partnered with.
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So you get a feel of what the relationship is going to be like
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as you go through that, that partnership, that partnership
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journey. So I think that, you know, doing
17:33
diligence, I think that's, you know, one of the key things.
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I know I've learned the other big thing and, and I've learned
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and seen this the hard way, especially when it comes to
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raising capital, it's making sure you're structuring your
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partnering your BD transactions in a way that allows you to
17:53
raise capital in the future. And what that means is if you
17:59
are licensing out your lead asset and you're going to get an
18:05
upfront payment and there's royalties on the back end,
18:08
there's a really good chance if, if it's structured as a
18:11
traditional license, you're not going to be able to raise equity
18:15
capital going forward on that particular program.
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So it's really important to talk to lots of different people,
18:23
think about how you're structuring your BD transactions
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and make sure you structure them in a way that still leaves value
18:31
on the back end and allows you to raise capital as those
18:34
programs continue to progress in your pipeline.
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So I think that's, that's number two, that's, that's another big
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thing. The other, the, the third big
18:44
thing is fundraising never stops.
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So I've seen this where, you know, a company goes through a
18:52
Series A or a Series B and it's, you know, Hooray, we made it,
18:57
we've done it. We've got our 50 million, 100
18:59
million in the bank and now we can just focus on what's going
19:05
on inside the company and we don't have to deal with new
19:08
investors anymore. And that can't be further from,
19:12
from the truth. I mean, I've, I've seen
19:14
situations where a company goes through a fundraising exercise
19:18
and then not more than a year later, something happens with
19:20
the fund and you know, projects, you know, are delayed and you
19:27
have to go into a different direction and you need new
19:30
investors involved. And you haven't been talking to
19:35
new investors. And in the fundraising rounds
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I've been in, very rarely is there a situation where you meet
19:43
an investor for the first time and he or she isn't ready to
19:46
invest your company within a couple of weeks.
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It's all about relationships that have developed and have
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been fostered over, you know, 5-6, you know, 12 months.
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So even after fundraising, it's. Setting goals for yourself.
20:03
Hey, I'm going to, I'm going to meet 5 or 10 new investors this
20:07
quarter and just update them on what's going on with my company,
20:11
how we're thinking about fundraising, because you never
20:15
know when, when the right time could be to, to do another round
20:20
or supplement a current round that, that you're going through.
20:23
So never Scott, fundraising is, is another big lesson I've
20:26
learned. The fourth thing is, you know,
20:30
as you're preparing your pitch and you're thinking about
20:33
talking to investors, I've learned it's really important to
20:37
test your pitch with maybe your non lead type of investors
20:43
first. And that way you can get maybe
20:47
some of the kinks out of your presentation.
20:51
And and you know, you always learn something new as you're
20:55
giving your pitch and you're talking to investors.
20:58
And so it's maybe testing your pitch with, you know, your non
21:02
lead investors first and making adjustments to your pitch before
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you start, you know, reaching out to the, to the Omegas and
21:09
orbimeds and TCG crossovers of, of, of the world.
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So that's, that's another big lesson that, that I've learned.
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And, and the last one, which probably in, in my, in my
21:21
opinion is, is the most important is, you know, keep
21:24
your confidence high. I mean, especially in this
21:27
environment, don't be surprised if you're going through 203040
21:31
conversations and, and you don't feel like you're making the
21:36
progress that you thought you would when you first started
21:39
fundraising. Keep your confidence high.
21:44
You know, make sure you are leveraging all the scientific
21:47
conferences and presentations that you're out there making.
21:50
You know, make sure that you're getting your data published in
21:53
in nature. Make sure you're getting your
21:57
boards and your SA BS filled out with, you know, folks that can
22:01
network on your behalf and set you up with the right
22:04
conversations. But I think it's really
22:06
important to keep your confidence and the trust in your
22:10
science high. This is an incredibly
22:15
challenging field that we're in. There's going to be headwinds.
22:19
There's going to be, you know, clinical data that you're going
22:22
to get that's going to force you to go and do maybe a different
22:26
direction that you hadn't thought about, but keep your
22:30
confidence high. So those are kind of the four,
22:33
five things that you know hopefully can can benefit
22:37
others. Yeah, very good.
22:40
And this is a question that we normally finish with on the
22:43
Biohub. I know I want to give you a bit
22:44
of a heads up with it as well, but if you would have dinner
22:46
with any three people, past or present, who would they be and
22:50
why? Don't necessarily need to be
22:52
biotech innovators, although they can be if you like.
22:56
But yeah, three people for dinner.
22:58
Yeah, so this is a really boring answer, but my life is crazy
23:04
right now. My, my wife and I, we're, we
23:06
both work full time, our kids are in school.
23:09
And so, so honestly just having a meal with my wife and my 3
23:13
kids, I, we don't get to spend this, especially with, with
23:18
soccer going on and all the activities we don't, just to
23:22
get, we don't get enough time to just sit down and hang out with
23:25
each other without thinking about all the day-to-day
23:30
stresses of life. So I, I, I'd love to do
23:34
something with them. And then the other big group is,
23:38
you know, I've got 2 nephews and three nieces and again, I don't
23:44
get enough time to just hang out and, and they're all older now.
23:48
So like my 3 nieces are either in college or done with college
23:51
and starting to work. And my nephews are, you know,
23:55
one nephew is starting at E&Y and my other nephew just started
23:58
at NC State. And you know, everybody's kind
24:01
of scattered off doing their own thing and just getting a chance
24:06
to be with them and, and hang out and catch up on what's going
24:10
on with life is, is, would be great for me.
24:15
And then the last person. So I'm a sports guy.
24:17
I'm a big basketball, baseball, football guy.
24:19
I, I grew up in Cleveland, OH and I grew up listening to the
24:26
Cleveland Cavs on radio, on the radio in my basement while I
24:30
would shoot baskets on, on this Nerf basketball hoop.
24:36
And the, the player that I always used to emulate while I
24:39
was in my basement was Mark Christ.
24:41
He was a point guard. And so I, I would just love to
24:45
be able to have dinner, dinner with him, talk to him about his
24:51
upbringing, what it was like to play basketball for the Cavs.
24:54
I think it would just be just be really cool.
24:58
Nice, but some awesome answers there.
25:00
And yeah, I think you, I, I didn't actually know too much
25:03
about general oncology prior to you joining then check them out.
25:06
But you've given a great overview there and sounds like
25:08
what you're working on as well is, is exciting and this
25:11
differentiation and yeah, just your outlook on fundraising as
25:14
well has been super insightful. So, yeah, thanks for helping us
25:18
out with this. It's been an absolute pleasure
25:20
to to have you on and look forward to keeping in touch for
25:22
you. Awesome.
25:24
Thanks a lot. I appreciate the time.