Announcing RA University: IV League Biotech
By RApport
With apologies to Harvard University
May 12, 2022
Whether you graduated with a BA, MA, PhD, MD, MBA or some other combination of letters after your name, it’s likely that academia didn't really prepare you for a career in biotech.
When is it appropriate to call a financing a crossover round versus just a Series C? Is a job offer that comes with 50,000 options more or less attractive than one that comes with 10,000 options? How are drugs priced? What is the cost of inventing a drug? Who invents them – NIH or industry?
Our lawmakers don’t get the difference between list prices and what patients actually pay, and so many want to impose price controls on the list prices of blockbuster drugs. In turn, many executives don’t understand the mechanism by which those price controls would impact investors’ early-stage R&D funding decisions.
To address these widespread misunderstandings and knowledge gaps, the RA Capital team has developed short, insight-rich courses on a variety of advanced topics relevant to the business of biotechnology. Our goal has been to examine and teach practical and theoretical concepts fundamental to the biotech industry that aren't being presented anywhere else. We refined the materials over the years while teaching them to small groups. Today, we’re excited to announce that anyone can access these materials (free of charge) through RA University, our new online learning center.
We hope these materials augment what’s taught at actual universities. Any instructor is welcome to use any of these materials or portions of these materials in their own courses.
RA University covers a lot of ground. If you’re new to the sector, start with our flagship course, “The Business of Biotechnology,” for introductory lessons on the biotech social contract and competitive game theory relevant to drug development. Or for more practical advice - especially if you’re considering taking a new biotech job - take a look at our “Understanding the Value of Your Equity” course, where we talk through how to think about equity as an integral (and often misunderstood) part of any employment offer. If you’re interested in how to explain the network of competing incentives that shapes the US healthcare industry, explore our modules on healthcare affordability & innovation. And there are materials for seasoned folks as well – jump into our “Finance Master Class” (originally designed for CFO candidates) and leaf through “SABER” (Strategic Alignment: Board & Executive Resource), our guide for putting together the best board meetings in the industry with the clearest board pre-read materials.
RA University stems from the desire to share hard-won insights related to experiences that have baffled and frustrated our team. We designed these courses to solve problems we’ve encountered, and they may help you with similar challenges.
Head of Engagement Jessica Sagers gives an example: "One of my colleagues once complained about how one of our companies was trying to hire a CMO and lost out on an awesome candidate. When the candidate was asked why they went with another offer, they explained that a competing company offered them more equity options. That seemed understandable – until my colleague explained that the other company had far more shares outstanding and was, in fact, offering the candidate a much smaller percentage of ownership. People don’t choose jobs based just on equity, but maybe our company wouldn’t have lost that candidate had they put the equity offer in its proper context. After asking around, we heard this kind of misunderstanding is common. As it turns out, there is a lot about the business of biotech that many people – even experienced folks! – don’t know.”
Founder and Managing Partner Peter Kolchinsky added, “I’ll admit that what drove me to buckle down and draft some of these slide decks, articles, and at one point even a whole book was righteous indignation. I couldn’t believe how some really expensive mistakes were caused by respected, experienced people misunderstanding how the innovation ecosystem works. And it’s hard to say that they should have known, because a lot of basic principles just aren’t taught as part of any curriculum biotech people are likely to graduate from, and once you’re focused on doing your job in one part of the ecosystem, it’s hard to find the time to wrap you head around the rest of it. I felt strongly that if our team had the insights others needed, we had to get them out there. And what we didn’t know, we learned so that we could then teach. And now a lot of that is in RA University.”
Whether someone is a scientist, CFO, investor, policymaker, doctor, patient, or works in health insurance, the multidisciplinary lessons we’ve pulled together are designed to demystify biotech and help everyone see that we are all subject to a unified framework that can make sense, can be improved, and yet is a lot less broken than it might seem from any one angle. By teaching how biotech functions within constraints and responds to incentives, we hope that anyone taking these courses will appreciate how their actions - in business, at home, and at the voting booth - affect the industry and society at large.
To access our materials, simply sign up for a free account and enroll in whichever courses interest you. We’ve curated them to suit the interests of various audiences based on experience level, so whether you’re an executive or a student, you’ll find content tailored to your needs.
Importantly, this new site is a work in progress - we’re sure it isn’t perfect yet! So if you see a point you think we’ve missed, notice something that isn’t working right, or can imagine a module explaining a concept you think others in our industry could benefit from, reach out to us at RAU@racap.com. We’re excited to receive your feedback as our offerings grow.
Please click here for important RA Capital disclosures.
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