News & Press

March-in Rights Won't Lower Drug Prices

Fri, 11 Jun 2021 17:00:38 GMT

https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2021/06/march-in-rights-wont-lower-drug-prices-opinion.html

Angel & Accelerator Funding: Continuing the Conversation

Tue, 4 May 2021 17:02:47 GMT

In late 2020, OUP hosted a webinar on Angel and Accelerator Funding for University Startups. We reconnected with two of the panelists, Ashok Kamal, Executive Director of Tech Coast Angels, and Jun Axup, Chief Science Officer and Partner of IndieBio, to continue the conversation about angel and accelerator funding in addition to answering some follow-up participant questions. The panelists’ statements below have been edited for clarity and length.

Read the full article here: https://oup.vc/insights/angel-accelerator-funding-continuing-the-conversation/

2020 OUP Annual Survey Feedback

Mon, 15 Mar 2021 19:47:37 GMT

Each year, OUP sends out a survey to its academic partners to gather feedback on how we are performing and our programs. We appreciate that so many of you take the time to fill this out. We read every survey, and they help us evaluate what is working well, what needs improvement, and what we can do in addition to what we already do. We wanted to provide you this quick summary of some of the points made and some initial thoughts on areas that will change in the coming year.

First, we are honored by the kind remarks many of you made about your partnership with OUP. One of the most rewarding parts of our work is getting to work with all of you.

One of the major areas of feedback was on investment opportunities out of your institutions - you would like more feedback on your startups and you would love for us to invest in more of your opportunities. We’re working on some ways to provide additional feedback and in a more timely manner. Natasha Azar on our team is spearheading an update to our “deal log” that we provide to you - this is the compendium of startups we’re tracking from your institutions that we send on a periodic basis. Improvements may include a regularly refreshed version of this deal log for your institution in our OUP Partner Portal. We’re also planning to hire additional team members this year to increase our deal reviews (and feedback!) for your institutions.

As for investments, between all of the universities we currently work with, we are tracking over 7,000 active investment opportunities. We typically make investments in ~10 new companies per year. This is a lot of deals for a fund our size, and we hear you - the universities have a plethora of amazing opportunities.

We have a lot more that we’re planning due to the survey results, but we also wanted to mention that we’re always thrilled to read about the OUP programs you enjoy. The startup license terms database and the webinars consistently rank at the top of those programs, and many of the improvements on both have been due to the suggestions you made. Our upcoming webinar on Friends & Family Funding is just one of those ideas that came from you. Please keep the suggestions coming!

TTO Communications Tactics with VCs

Thu, 3 Dec 2020 19:58:27 GMT

As a VC firm partnered with over 100 universities, we get the question from TTOs all the time — how can we best communicate with VCs?

While investors have directed more attention to universities for deal flow in recent years (see bar graph below), most VCs don’t have a singular focus on startups commercializing university research and settle for letting the startups come in via normal channels, e.g. introductions from other VCs, investor conferences, pitching events, and the news. And for institutions that aren’t in the Boston biotech hub, or the Bay area, or New York City, or even other major coastal cities — rising above the noise level of their peers to attract attention from top-tier venture capital, angel, and strategic investors can be a challenge.

So what can the Tech Transfer Offices (TTOs) do to attract investors to their university’s startup opportunities? Here are some tips from OUP, with help from Mike Psarouthakis, Venture Center Director at the University of Michigan and Rob Hallford, Director of New Ventures at Duke University, both of whom recently participated in our webinar in May 2020 entitled ‘Cultivating Relationships with Investors at Your University.’

Read the full blog post here.

Virtual Office Hours with OUP Investment Team

Thu, 26 Mar 2020 18:22:48 GMT

During this period of uncertainty around the COVID-19 crisis, OUP would like to be a resource to your startup founders, and graduate students and professors who are thinking of commercializing their research. Our tech and life sciences teams are offering completely open and informal VC office hours to our partner institutions. During these sessions, OUP can answer questions related to early stage startups on topics such as technology de-risking, product-marketing fit, fundraising, and the general startup process.

To schedule a time for your institution's startups to meet via video conference with an OUP investment team member, please forward this scheduling form to interested faculty, postdocs, and grad students. Tech team members Manny Stockman and David Dorsey and life science team members Anurag Agarwal, Margalit Haber, and Stephanie Stehman will be available from 2-4 pm EST from Tuesday-Thursday for a 30-minute session through the end of summer.

If you would like a flyer to advertise office hours at your institution, please reach out to Natasha Azar.

Osage University Partners Promotes Kirsten Leute to Partner

Wed, 19 Feb 2020 16:54:01 GMT

BALA CYNWYD, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Osage University Partners (“OUP”), a Philadelphia-based venture capital firm, today announced the promotion of Kirsten Leute to Partner, University Relations. Kirsten joined the firm in 2015 as Senior Vice President, University Relations and previously was Associate Director of the Office of Technology Licensing at Stanford University.

OUP has partnered with over 100 leading universities to make direct investments in their most promising startup companies. In March of 2019, the firm announced the closing of its $273 million third fund.

Since joining OUP in 2015, Kirsten has led efforts in growing the firm’s partner institution network from 75 partners to over 100 today, including 27 of the top 30 U.S. research institutions. The partner institution network includes universities, research institutions, accelerators, and university venture funds in the U.S. and abroad. A full list of OUP’s partner universities can be found here.

"This promotion reflects our firm's commitment to recognizing excellence," said Marc Singer, Managing Partner at OUP. "Kirsten has been instrumental in our firm's rapid growth and success in developing deep relationships with our existing partner institutions, but also in establishing new relationships among the higher education community. We are confident Kirsten will be even more effective in her new role as OUP continues to establish itself as a leading investor in university startups."

Through a deep relationship with the Technology Transfer Offices of these institutions, OUP has backed nearly 100 of the most exciting companies based on university research to date. In the last three years, OUP has had multiple IPOs, including Aptinyx (APTX), Biohaven Pharma (BHVN), Kura Oncology (KURA), Homology Medicines (FIXX), Selecta Biosciences (SELB), Spero Therapeutics (SPRO), Precision Biosciences (DTIL), Satsuma Pharmaceuticals (STSA), and Synthorx (THOR). OUP has also had the following successful acquisitions: Body Labs was acquired by Amazon; Cell Design Labs was acquired by Gilead Sciences; Modis Therapeutics was acquired by Zogenix; Synthorx was acquired by Sanofi.

Read the full press release here.