Tal Zaks is a Partner at OrbiMed. We cover the challenges that make investing in biotech different from fields like software, the importance of seeking lessons in your successes as well as failures, and why the pursuit of returns makes large-scale capital flows into science and innovation possible.
Principles & Lessons:
1) Capital and science must align to create lasting medical progress. Tal stresses how “people give us money and a number of years later we need to give them more money back,” underscoring that life-saving innovations require a viable commercial path. He links this to the ultimate long-term payoff for society through generics, recalling that “once the brand price erodes... all of society across the globe [benefits] at pennies.”
2) Scientific unknowns and clinical realities distinguish biotech from other tech sectors. Tal explains that “biology means, is this protein actually involved in disease? The pharmacology is, can we change that function with a drug?” and both remain unpredictable until tested in people. He calls out the difference in engineering mindsets, noting that physicians “don’t know if it’s going to work, so we have to test it in the clinic,” whereas engineers often operate with clearer, more deterministic processes.
3) Bridging expertise and language is vital for drug development. Tal frames drug creation as a multidisciplinary challenge requiring fluency in finance, biology, engineering, and more, stating “if you look at pharma... you will rarely find anybody around the table who was there at the start, yet the thing works.” He references his early realization that “one of your greatest barriers is language,” emphasizing how silos can inhibit collaborative progress.
4) Moderna’s rapid COVID-19 vaccine success exemplifies platform readiness and high-level coordination. Tal credits prior work on eight other viruses: “Covid was to be our ninth,” plus a partnership with the NIH starting with Zika, enabling a “combination of private capital, rapid government guidance, and finding hotspots” so trials could yield results quickly. He highlights that “it was private capital that funded the commercial expansion, with the government backstop coming later.”
5) Vaccine backlash arises from deeper trust and ethical issues, not just data disputes. Tal describes how mRNA vaccines became “the most well-studied medical intervention in the history of mankind,” yet significant public skepticism remains. He cites the tension that “science per se is not an ethical framework” and warns that “forcing people to take vaccines is an ethical and moral consideration” requiring open, honest public dialogue rather than top-down mandates.
6) Nucleic acid ‘information medicines’ hold promise for faster iteration and broader disease impact. Tal notes that “mRNA is a software-like platform” with the same physical structure but different encoded instructions, and sees a future in gene therapies where “we actually just put in the information that encodes for that protein... you fix the problem” permanently. Yet he also acknowledges new moral and safety questions when genetic changes are made to last a lifetime.
7) Success depends on integrating adaptability and experienced teams. Tal recalls an early investment that failed partly because it was “very linear” with “not enough degrees of freedom to adjust.” By contrast, Moderna built strategic flexibility—funding multiple applications in parallel and adjusting capital allocation dynamically. Tal believes “it’s the people who believe, who are putting their time on Earth into this,” that ultimately secure returns.
8) AI in medicine will bring value incrementally unless incentives and productivity align. Tal envisions near-term “thin vertical” solutions, like scanning pathology slides or recruiting for clinical trials, but emphasizes that “the bull case is that there’s an integration of these systems and a realignment of incentives” to boost healthcare productivity. He sees digital twins and rapid simulations as “still a little bit the realm of science fiction” given current complexity, ethical constraints, and the democratic process that shapes public acceptance.
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