One Person Biotech
Daniel Branco, MD, PhD, MBA
For private equity · venture capital · family offices · corporate venture

An operator's read on your deal, in days.

Analysts can summarize a data room. What they can't tell you is what the science will do in a clinic, what the plan assumes that the team hasn't said, and whether these people can execute it. I've sat in those seats: building the model behind a biotech IPO, running the medical function, doing the buy-side work for private equity and development finance. That is the read I give you.

Daniel Branco, MD, PhD, MBA — physician-scientist & biotech operator · San Diego
01

Three questions the data room won't answer.

I

Will the science hold?

Mechanism plausibility, the quality of the evidence so far, what the next trial has to show, and the regulatory path that follows: FDA, EMA, ANVISA. Read by a physician who has designed and run the studies, not summarized them.

II

Is the position real?

Who else is in the indication, how far along, and what would change the picture. Built on BioAlma, the intelligence platform I run, so the landscape is complete and current rather than a slide from the company's own deck.

III

Can this team execute the plan you're pricing?

An operating assessment from someone who has held the seats: corporate development, medical affairs, financial planning through an IPO. Which assumptions in the model are load-bearing, and whether the people in the room can carry them.

02

Three formats.

Scoped to the decision in front of you, not to a standard deliverable. Every format ends with a call, and with a plain answer to the question you actually asked.

3 business days

Deal screen

A two-page read for the partner meeting: science plausibility, clinical and regulatory path, competitive position, and the three assumptions the model lives or dies on.

  • Go, no-go, or dig-here recommendation
  • The questions to put to management
  • Comparable assets and deals
Fixed fee
2–3 weeks

Full diligence

The complete scientific, clinical and commercial case, with the operating assessment most diligence skips.

  • Scientific & clinical diligence; regulatory strategy
  • Competitive landscape & asset benchmarking
  • Management & operating-plan assessment
  • Valuation inputs: timelines, probability of success, comparables
  • Red-flag memo and Q&A with your team
Project fee
After the close

First 100 days

The plan the deal was priced on, executed. An interim fractional seat while the company hires, and the intelligence function it doesn't have yet.

  • 100-day operating plan
  • Interim CBO, CMO or head of medical affairs
  • Medical & competitive intelligence on retainer
Monthly retainer

Where I add the most

Therapeutics and cell & gene therapy in neurology, oncology and rare disease, where I have both the clinical training and the operating years. Assets with a Brazilian or Latin American angle, clinical, regulatory or licensing, where I have run the work on the ground. And digital health or medtech that makes clinical claims, where a physician's read on the evidence is the diligence.

Domains
  • CNS & neurology · cell & gene therapy
  • Oncology · rare disease
  • Brazil & Latin America: assets, trials, licensing
  • Digital health & medtech with clinical claims

The buy-side work behind the read.

Three completed healthcare transactions with Blackstone-affiliated Pátria Investimentos. Deal screening for the IFC's TechEmerge health program. Fourteen McKinsey & Company engagements in healthcare and pharma. The financial and forecast model behind operations and IPO planning at Artiva Biotherapeutics. That is the seat I read your deal from.

3
Private-equity transactions completed
14
McKinsey healthcare & pharma engagements
1 IPO
The model behind it, built from the inside
03

How it works.

01

Send the deck

Or a one-line description of the asset and where you are in the process. An NDA is fine; I sign yours.

02

Scoped in 24 hours

Format, timeline and fee, on one page. If I'm not the right reader for the deal, I say so and point you to someone who is.

03

The read, and the call

The written read, then an hour with you and whoever else needs to hear it. Follow-up questions to management included.

On diligence work I take no equity and no success fees, from either side of the table. The read is only worth something if it is independent.

Have a deal on the table?

Tell me the asset and the timeline. You'll have a scope within a day.

Running a biotech instead? See the founders' page →