Biotechnology teams worldwide engage MotionHall to accelerate their success in securing licensing deals. MotionHall’s deal enablement platform creates the insight and comprehensive reach to ensure that deal makers, such as investment banks, are fully equipped at the negotiating table.

As transactions are sensitive strategic processes, names of companies and executives in all MotionHall case studies are anonymized.

Birchwood Biosciences’ new CEO, Carolina, is typical of early stage biotechnology CEOs, focusing on all aspects of the company’s operations, whilst also fundraising, and leading BD. She looks to leverage her time through expert support. For instance, in her previous companies, she has worked with experienced negotiators at investment banks to help in securing licensing deals. In her first deal at Birchwood, she added MotionHall to her deal team. She saw MotionHall as fully complementing the skillset her bank offered, whilst transforming the company’s business development strategy and capabilities in a number of ways.

Optimizing Deal Strategy

Carolina's first role was transacting Birchwood’s lead asset, BRW1, a phase 2 oncology drug. MotionHall was able to rapidly provide detailed partnering landscape data, a comprehensive competitive landscape, and comprehensive deal comparables. This enabled Carolina to deeply understand all of BRW1s potential partners and strategic fit, potential competition or perceived competition, where deals were being transacted, and optimal deal terms to target.

Carolina brought this bespoke, ready-to-go analysis to her investment bank. The bank could immediately see the value of this level of insight when entering into partnering discussions and deal negotiations. Carolina was able to spend more time with her investment bank and MotionHall on the highest leverage work for Birchwood. With this high degree of market transparency, together they constructed a sophisticated strategy for approaching potential partners.

Breadth and Depth of Outreach

MotionHall’s comprehensive list of such partners for BRW1 were ranked using its proprietary OutMatch platform. Carolina and her CSO were immediately able to dive into and identify areas of scientific synergy with each target company, and to select where executive time should be best focused. The bank was also able to augment the partner targeting strategy with their network of executive and non-executive contacts within the deal space.

Carolina then developed and implemented an outreach campaign that integrated both the comprehensive list of contacts identified by OutMatch across each potential partner’s R&D and BD organizations, with the deep relationships built by the leadership team at the investment bank. This coordinated strategy enabled a multi-pronged approach, with the development of scientific champions within each targeted company, supported by senior advocacy for BRW1.

Team Focus to Secure the Deal

As the deal cycle moved ahead, each deal team member focused on their strengths:

• • Carolina and the Birchwood executive team drove science-led discussions with each potential partner;
• • MotionHall provided deal support, including company-specific insights to use during diligence activities, strategic data room provision and tracking, and inbox management to ensure executive management time is properly prioritized;
• • The investment bank, secure in the knowledge that it had a comprehensive view of the market and competition, utilized MotionHall’s insights in the negotiating room, to drive a competitive deal cycle, pulling potential partners to term sheet submission and secured the best deal terms for Birchwood.

Carolina believes that the comprehensive analytics and deal support provided by MotionHall were vital to her securing this deal on her preferred timeline and deal terms, and worked synergistically with the capabilities of other members of her entire deal team.