Webinar on Assessing Risk and Value in Pharmaceutical and Biotech Investment Hosted by Analysis Group

March 25, 2024

Managing Principal Jee-Yeon Lehmann and Vice President Sumon Mazumdar were joined by affiliates Amitabh Chandra (Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School) and Michael Scott Kinch (Long Island University) for a discussion on economic and scientific tools that may be useful in analyzing the likelihood of clinical and regulatory success and the value of health care and life sciences treatments in development. The webinar, part of Analysis Group’s Law & Economics Symposium series, was titled “Assessing Risk and Value in Pharmaceutical and Biotech Investment.” Panelists offered academic and industry perspectives on a range of issues, including clinical success rates, deal valuation, and methodological considerations in calculating the value of emerging biotech.

Professor Chandra opened the discussion by explaining why valuing biotech assets is different from valuing other assets. He addressed some key value drivers and unique risks involved in biotech valuations and reasons why different parties may come to different conclusions about those valuations. Professor Kinch highlighted some of the challenges in determining key inputs to valuation analysis, including the opacity of most data concerning the likelihood of success of such treatments. He then described an open-source database that he developed to evaluate trends in clinical trials and approvals for pharmaceuticals and explained how that database may be used in valuations of drugs in development. The two affiliates answered questions posed by Drs. Lehmann and Mazumdar on the types of data that may be needed to conduct a robust valuation of a drug in development as well as identifiable trends concerning the clinical or commercial success of certain types of drugs, among other topics.

Watch a full recording of the webinar below and learn more about our Law & Economics Symposium webinar series here.