June 2024

RiverVest's annual meeting was held at The Ritz-Carlton, St. Louis on May 2, 2024. Members of the RiverVest team reported on the past year of investment activity:

Attendees also heard from leaders of four RiverVest portfolio companies about exciting progress and next steps in addressing the needs of patients with malignant tumors, rare respiratory diseases, deep venous obstructions, and neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopment disorders.

Be sure to read Portfolio News below for recent portfolio company announcements.



Tim "The Professor" Opler, managing director of Stifel Global Healthcare Group, sat down with Derek Rapp, managing director of RiverVest, to discuss the state of the pharmaceutical industry, including valuations, major trends, and prospects for growth.

Watch the replay here. Time stamps are indicated in parentheses:

Key Takeaways

• "The follow-on market has been on fire this year" (6:40)
• Large pharma has $1 trillion of M&A firepower (10:43)
• Pharma has become so important that people "love to hate it," making it an easy target for politicians to demonize (26:00)
• Biotech has become the R&D team for Big Pharma, 50% of pipelines are externally sourced (30:39)
• "AI will completely transform healthcare" (32:00) but has been disappointing in drug discovery thus far

Bottom Line: The Professor is "hugely bullish" (18:20) on the pharmaceutical sector.



Square Co-Founder Jim McKelvey hosted our group for a pre-meeting social at Third Degree Glass Factory in the St. Louis Makers District. Here, Jim describes how timing can make or (literally) break a piece of glass or disrupt the payments industry (Square). Similarly, in biotech, innovators must focus on doing the right thing at the right time if they want to get the best results.



Please join us in congratulating RiverVest Managing Director Niall O'Donnell on receiving the 2024 Sullivan Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation's Entrepreneurial Achievement Award. The award, presented on June 5, 2024, by Rady School of Management Dean Lisa Ordóñez and Founding Dean Robert S. Sullivan, celebrates entrepreneurship's impact on the San Diego region and beyond.

In his 18 years at RiverVest, Niall has been a leader in the founding of five companies, he has helped portfolio companies raise more than a billion dollars, and his efforts have benefited countless patients with various rare diseases.

To learn more about Niall's journey to entrepreneurship through life sciences innovation and venture capital, please watch this excellent "Success Story" video produced by UC San Diego.

Engrail Therapeutics: Addressing the Need for Safer, More Effective Medicines to Treat Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety is a mental health problem of epic proportions, affecting more than 300 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

"The numbers are staggering," said Vikram Sudarsan, PhD, founder and CEO of RiverVest's most recently added portfolio company, Engrail Therapeutics. Moreover, the symptoms can be devastating, affecting people's ability to sleep, concentrate, and make decisions, which can impede their ability to work and care for themselves and their families.

Despite the prevalence and impact of anxiety disorders, there remains a lack of safe, effective medical treatments. Engrail is addressing that significant unmet medical need with its portfolio of precision neuroscience transformational therapies.

In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, RiverVest sat down with Dr. Sudarsan in May to discuss ENX-102, the company's lead drug candidate for treating generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). We invite you to read our Q&A with him on RiverVest's website or through our LinkedIn company page, where you may leave a comment or share the post.

To stay current on portfolio company activity news and announcements, be sure to visit the RiverVest website and follow us on LinkedIn.

Recent announcements include:

RiverVest Venture Partners is a leading life science venture capital firm focused on improving the lives of patients, supporting entrepreneurs, and earning the trust of investors through science, strategy, and innovation.