Ophthalmic companies should be nimble, consider partnering to achieve success
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SAN FRANCISCO — To move forward successfully, venture capitalists interested in eye care need to be prepared to support longer development cycles, according to a speaker here.
“When you look at the ophthalmology index as a whole, whether it’s pharma or device, there is a lot of market cap that is consolidated amongst a handful of names. It’s not spread out,” Andrew Gitkin, vice chairman of health care investment banking at Raymond James, said at Eyecelerator@AAO. “Moving some of these names can have a significant impact on the index.”
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While delivering a broad overview of public and private markets in ophthalmology, Gitkin said that public biotech valuations are trending downward overall. This dip in the market is largely due to notable setbacks with respect to data in some large capital companies that account for a great deal of the ophthalmic index, he said.
Ophthalmic companies should be prepared to outsource non-core functions, Gitkin said, and ready to partner if necessary.
“Companies need to be nimble,” he said. “Private companies should expect to stay private longer, use their capabilities to shift cost, outsourcing and consider financing outside the traditional capital markets through partnering or licensing transactions.”
New approaches and innovation will help improve the ophthalmic market overall, Gitkin said.
“Some of the most advanced, innovative technologies are being tested in ophthalmology —gene therapy, etc,” he said. “While we sometimes get some friction that development may be too incremental, which I would argue lowers the risk of development but is less game changing, you also see very significant innovation going on.”
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Gitkin A. Public and private markets. Presented at: Eyecelerator@AAO; Nov. 2, 2023; San Francisco.
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