Robert Thong

We’re helping to mitigate the commercial barriers inherent to drug development and bring life-changing therapies to patients. Read my latest piece with Alistair Macdonald on how we are helping to accelerate innovation.

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This is a thorough, timely and well-written report on UK university-investor links by Tony Hickson at Cancer Research Horizons; and thank you for specifically mentioning Brandon Capital in the context of the BioCatalyst collaboration we operate across >50 medical research institutes across Australasia. This model has given us unrivalled visibility and access to early-stage ideas, and created collaborations and transparency across the ecosystem. Three points jumped out at me in Tony's report: 1) UK universities produce large numbers (hundreds) of companies, but very few (5%) ever raise significant money (>£100m). Quality always trumps quantity in company creation. 2) Historically, a relative shortage of sector-specific and unconstrained (pre)seed-stage investors that can deploy meaningful amounts of cash (>£5m) very early - crucial for creating new companies that have "legs". 3) >70% of large and late-stage venture funding (>£100m) is coming from non-UK funds. There are pros and cons to this - it shows the UK sector is robust, resilient and globally attractive, but also that much of the economic benefit is ultimately exported, and UK funds are shouldering too much early risk (certainly in biotech where significant up-rounds are rare, therefore only investing early without the means to follow-on is not economically rewarded). https://lnkd.in/ei-KgbwP

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This is a profound step-change for #prostatecancer detection and management. The UK NHS is deploying Quibim QP-Prostate across key hospitals to make MRI the new standard for the early diagnosis of prostate cancer. Quibim is a global leader in virtual biopsies. Patients in the UK will soon have access to their MRI-based test that autonomously localizes tumors, stages them and more importantly flags high virulence cases. All of it in a non-invasive and painless way. No more unnecessary biopsies. More aggressive cancers will be detected earlier. More lives will be saved.

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I’m delighted to share Gloucester Ventures' latest thought leadership, Part II in the three-part series, “The Future of Precision Diagnostics". In Part I, we showed how AI/ ML has enabled innovations in detecting disease with greater sensitivity and specificity. In Part II, we predict how generative and agentic AI will unlock the next wave of precision diagnostics opportunities. We start with the diagnostics problem statement – five key challenges – such as limited data access and usability, proliferation of tests and less attractive revenue models. We then turn to the challenges into five ‘Must Have’s’ that AI can enable: - Ready to use, valued quality data via independent data exchanges - Regulation focused on quality of AI in clinical diagnostics - Harmonized precision diagnostics platforms vs. tests - Predictive Dx decisioning, powered by genAI, populated by agents -  Evolved business models more akin to AI-native companies And finally we outline what this means for investors - with five potential bets in and around precision diagnostics. Many thanks to all of the superb contributors to this article: Tzvika Barkai, Reena Bhargava, MD, FACP Burns C. Blaxall, PhD, Ed Esplin, MD, PhD, FACMG, CGAF, FACP, Mark Hughes, Monica Isgut, PhD . Christopher Kan Dimitri Krylov, PhD, Jeffrey Edward Miller, Ph.D., Mika Newton, Dhruvajyoti Roy, Ph.D. ,Alexander Sicular, Karthik Suresh, and also to Robyn Baker for her excellent design work. The slides from the article are below; for the full article viewing, visit our website https://lnkd.in/eVBhEFEm media. Look forward to continuing the dialogue! #Gloucester Ventures #Precision Diagnostics #AI in diagnostics #AI in Healthcare

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Delighted to announce that Deciphex has secured a further €15m in venture debt from Claret Capital Partners to accelerate our US expansion and UK growth. Pathology underpins 95% of clinical care pathways, yet healthcare systems globally are struggling with increasing case volumes, growing complexity, and declining pathologist capacity. Our Diagnexia platform helps NHS trusts and healthcare providers maintain diagnostic quality and reduce backlogs by providing on-demand access to subspecialty expertise, while Patholytix helps pharmaceutical companies accelerate drug development through optimized preclinical safety assessments. We're seeing tremendous demand across both markets. Venture debt gives us the capital efficiency to execute aggressively on our growth plans while building toward our next equity milestone - with a clear goal of becoming the leading histopathology reporting provider in the UK by 2027. Thanks to Joey Mason and the Claret team for their partnership since 2023 and their continued confidence in our execution. #DigitalPathology #AIinHealthcare #Medtech

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I've launched a new Substack called Backed By Reality (https://lnkd.in/ejNZtkZs). This is my attempt, as a healthcare operator and investor, to separate signal from noise in the AI conversation.  Here's why I'm writing about this now: We're witnessing the largest capital expenditure program in human history. Worldwide AI spending will hit $2.5 trillion this year — thirteen times the inflation-adjusted cost of the Apollo program. OpenAI just closed a $110 billion round. Amazon plans $200 billion on AI infrastructure alone. The ambitions match the capital. Anthropic's CEO describes the end state as "a country of geniuses in a data center" working on humanity's hardest problems. McKinsey estimates 57% of work hours could be automated. Goldman Sachs projects 300 million jobs displaced globally. But most people's experience with AI begins and ends with a chatbot. They have little sense of what these systems can already do or what's coming next. My perspective comes from over 25 years operating and investing in healthcare and the life sciences, and from immersing myself in the AI world over the past year. I've spoken with engineers, investors, and innovators on the frontlines, and I've been getting hands-on with AI tools and systems to develop my personal intuition for both the capabilities and limitations of this technology. Healthcare faces chronic labor shortages, mounting regulatory complexity, and unsustainable cost growth. AI could compress years of drug discovery into months, transform diagnostics, and help close workforce gaps. But it could also create new vulnerabilities we haven't anticipated. The signal matters because the stakes are civilizational. The noise obscures what's actually happening and who will benefit. My first piece sets the scene: what's happening and why I'm writing about it. Subsequent pieces will explore what it actually means for operators, investors, and anyone trying to build in this space. #AI #Healthcare #Venture #Substack #Innovation

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Britain has world-class science. What it needs now is world-class ambition to match it. I was delighted to share my perspective with In Vivo on the state of UK biotech, and what it will take to build a truly competitive ecosystem. → Funding is necessary, but not sufficient. Growth policy is the real differentiator.  → We can't outspend China. But agility, NHS data, AI, and talent can be our edge.  → The private sector needs to think bigger. Global intent from day one, not as an afterthought. The ingredients are there. Scientific excellence must be matched with operational ambition. By 2030, the UK should be the most founder-friendly biotech market in Europe. But only if we build that way, deliberately and urgently. Full article in the comments 👇

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Merck has entered a strategic collaboration with U.K.-based medtech firm Calla Lily Clinical Care to advance its innovative Callavid device. This next-gen intravaginal drug delivery system, designed like a tampon with an integrated absorbent liner, promises to transform how vaginal therapeutics are administered, addressing key limitations of current methods. Callavid aims to provide a leak-resistant, highly accurate alternative to traditional vaginal pessaries, eliminating the need for patients to remain in a fixed position post-dose. The device is currently being tested in clinical trials for applications like preventing miscarriage and supporting fertility treatments. With Merck's financial and strategic backing, this collaboration could pave the way for more convenient, efficient, and user-friendly therapeutic solutions, especially in women's health. #MedTech #DrugDelivery #WomensHealth #InnovationInHealthcare #Therapeutics https://lnkd.in/gzqWZ7RF

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"We achieved what Nobel Laureate Robert Edwards set out: accessibility." That's our Chief Medical Advisor and Edwards protege Charles Kingsland describing how he built the UK's pioneering NHS IVF facility in Liverpool—where patients could walk off the street and receive 2-3 cycles of treatment, no matter their finances. But what strikes me most isn't just what Kingsland accomplished. It's how he accomplished it. His solution to scaling access? Education and upskilling. "As a professor, I didn't want to be the most expensive ultrasonographer on the unit," Kingsland explains. So he trained nurses to perform oocyte retrievals and embryo transfers. He created MSc courses, PhD programs, and continuous learning pathways. He built a self-contained training ecosystem that attracted research fellows from around the world—including, as he notes my co-founder, "a young gynecologist called Alejandro." We're facing a critical embryologist shortage. And the average REI would need to oversee thousands of cycles annually to meet demand.   Kingsland's approach offers a blueprint: strategic upskilling that expands the workforce while maintaining quality. Train nurses and physician assistants for specific procedures. Create structured pathways from general lab work into specialized fertility roles. Build educational programs that turn interested professionals into skilled practitioners. And yes—combine it with automation that amplifies what skilled professionals can accomplish. Kingsland maintained efficiency by ensuring the most expensive expertise focused on tasks that truly required it. Automation does the same thing: it handles repetitive, labor-intensive steps so embryologists can oversee multiple systems, manage complex cases, and mentor the next generation. Accessibility through education. Accessibility through smart workforce development. Accessibility through technology that extends expertise rather than replacing it. Kingsland proved it works in Liverpool. We need the same commitment to training, the same willingness to rethink traditional roles, and the same focus on building sustainable systems that serve everyone—not just those who can afford what has become expensive concierge medicine. Thank you, Charles, for showing what's possible when you prioritize accessibility from the start. And congratulations on training Alejandro Chavez-Badiola, MD, PhD, my co-founder who's now helping us to scale that vision globally.

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Delighted to see that HotHouse Therapeutics, a spin out from the world-leading plant biosynthetic lab of Professor Anne Osbourn at the John Innes Centre has emerged from stealth mode with ~£3m in seed funding. There is a quite a story behind this one. In the vaccine industry there is global dependence on a critical adjuvant, QS-21. Today, this comes from the bark of a slow-growing Chilean tree, Quillaja saponaria. Purifying QS-21 destroys the tree, creating issues of sustainability as well as supply chain confidence. Supply chain is also threatened by the rise of wild fires in places where the tree grows. QS21 cannot, however, be easily made in the lab. It has been considered one of the hardest challenges in synthetic chemistry (complex assembly sequence, multiple chiral cores, bonds that will spontaneously break if exposed to the wrong pH during synthesis). In fact it takes 76 steps in the lab. Plants are quite good at reaching interesting chemical spaces and Hothouse was built around the question: what if you could use all of the tools of a plant (reservoir of enzymes, cellular architecture, etc) to turn it into a living laboratory? HotHouse team has spent years mastering this particular biochemical space building up a locker of proprietary plant genetic and omics data in it. Through the use of advanced bioinformatics (genome mining, pathway discovery), protein based LLMs and adaptive knowledge graphs, they have built a platform to design biosynthetic pathways, solve this bottleneck and productise complex plant chemistry. In 2024, they managed to identify a 20-step biosynthetic pathway of QS-21 and cloned it into tobacco plant. The goal here is to reprogram plants to sustainability produce novel adjuvants. These are plants that can be grown more easily (and here in the UK), faster and where extraction can come from the leaves rather than the bark. We are really excited about the broader potential of this approach especially in light of recent breakthroughs in synthetic biology (with the Evo-1 and Evo-2 models). Twin Path Ventures is delighted to form a syndicate of stellar investors (Hassan Mahmudul SynBioVen Wren Capital LLP UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund [UKI2S] Antoine Pechin) Congratulations to David Sheppard Phil Spence Ivan Griffin and the rest of the team. https://lnkd.in/egzWAP3H

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Couldn’t agree more with Anne Lane from UCL Business Ltd here. The UK is uniquely positioned in the life sciences and a few policy tweaks - including beefing up a number of existing support channels within universities and across industry - could help to significantly propel globally impactful innovation. 

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Pain and Cosmetics discovery and efficacy Scientists/Researchers SENSORY NEURON New eBook! In this free eBook, you’ll learn about: • The limitations of legacy models in pain and neurotoxicity research • How iPSC-derived sensory neurons are bridging the bench-to-bedside gap • The unique capabilities of Axol’s axoCells, optimized for both multi-well plates and microfluidic platforms • Real-world applications in pain modeling, skin biology, anti-aging research, cosmetic safety, and more • The benefits of our newly reformulated Sensory Neuron 2.0 kit Download your free copy today and redefine your research potential: https://hubs.la/Q03t7nd70 Enjoy Liam #PNS #cosmetics #skin #research #pain #drugdiscovery #neurons #cellculture #lifescience #biotech #neurotoxicity #invitro #MPS2025

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I am delighted to share the Novo Holdings Seed Investments Review for 2025. This review highlights a series of financing rounds exceeding $750 million for our existing portfolio companies. Moreover, it showcases four new stealth-stage biotech companies and new investments made by our Quantum team. Hopefully, you will find the insights and developments outlined in the review to be both informative and inspiring.

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Reposting this thoughtful analysis from Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. The report underscores a shift many of us in the field have been observing: longevity is increasingly defined not by lifespan extension alone, but by the biological processes that determine healthspan — metabolic integrity, organ resilience, and the burden of chronic fibro-inflammatory disease. What resonates most is the recognition that cardiometabolic dysfunction sits at the core of these interconnected pathways. The fibro-inflammatory remodeling that accumulates across organs is not a downstream consequence — it’s a central driver of decline. At PriveBio , our focus is to quantify these mechanisms with precision and develop targeted biologics that intervene upstream, where fibrosis, inflammation, and metabolic stress converge. The inclusion of PRV-101 in this report reflects the growing importance of precision frameworks and biomarker-enabled development in this next phase of therapeutics. A timely piece of analysis capturing where the field is heading — from treating disease to preserving long-term physiological function. #ObesityTherapeutics #CardiometabolicDisease #CardiorenalDisease # CKM #PrecisionMedicine #Fibroinflammation #Biotech #ObesityInnovation #PriveBio #Longevity #Healthspan #Lifespan #Longevity #BiotechInnovation #PriveBio

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A pleasure to support Global Counsel round table on behalf of Baringa on the subject of 'The role of private investment in the UK healthcare system'. Thank you to Charlie Norell, Daniel Mahony and Dr Harpreet Sood for the invitation to contribute to such a timely discussion. The discussion brought together investors, founders, and officials from across life sciences, medtech and digital health. Participants explored how private capital could complement NHS reform and how the health system might engage more confidently with commercial partners to accelerate innovation and productivity. While the UK continues to attract substantial venture and private-equity flows into biopharma and health-tech companies, those investments seldom translate into scaled NHS deployment or measurable patient benefit. The conversation focused on what cultural, structural and procedural changes could close this gap and create a more predictable environment for partnership. 🔗 to the paper here: https://lnkd.in/edfSaXnu

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Oxford BioTherapeutics has announced an exciting partnership with GSK focused on antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and other antibody therapies for cancer. This collaboration serves as another validation of the technology and capabilities of OBT, especially following their earlier deal with Roche this year. For more details, you can read the full announcement here: https://lnkd.in/eQ-fe37s

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NanoSyrinx was recently featured in Nature Portfolio 's Biopharma Dealmakers explaining how our Nanosyringe technology could revolutionise everything from #drugdiscovery, all the way through to therapeutic development. Read the article here: https://lnkd.in/ey9hEbRE We're super excited about what this can mean for solving #pharma and #biotech #drugdelivery challenges, and are keen to speak to partners who are trying to tap into "undruggable" biology. Many thanks to the BPDM team for helping pull this all together Raveena B. Mark Zipkin Carmen D'Cruz #engineeringbiology

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