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Koki Hirasaki

Managing Director, Ikigai BioVentures · 1 appearance on the record.

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investorexecutivescientistLinkedIn ↗bioluminescence.com ↗

Dr. Kouki Harasaki is a life sciences investor who served as a partner on Andreessen Horowitz’s bio team and Managing Director at Microsoft’s M12 venture fund before founding Bioluminescence Ventures. Holding a PhD in clinical biochemistry from Cambridge and an MBA from Harvard, he specializes in financing therapeutics and platform companies.

11statements → 8claims → 7claims resolved → 86%fully supported → 4/5average certainty → 1.64/5average debate potential →

6 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not checkable as stated how the 8 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

8 assertions · 3 insights · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 8 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 7 are resolved, and 1 names no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Koki argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Hirasaki: Immuno-Oncology Acquisitions Occurred Before Human Clinical Data
“Now, there are some areas of clear exception. So, so very competitive hot areas like oncology, immuno-oncology over the last few years. You've seen this shift in acquisitions earlier on. In, in phase one, and actually even earlier just because it was so compet…”
Koki Hirasaki Feb 28, 2019 ▶ 13:28 What’s with All the Bio M&A in 2019?: A Quick Take

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
100% certainty 3
100% certainty 4
75% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

Everything Koki Hirasaki said on the a16z Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Supported
Hirasaki: Immuno-Oncology Acquisitions Occurred Before Human Clinical Data
“Now, there are some areas of clear exception. So, so very competitive hot areas like oncology, immuno-oncology over the last few years. You've seen this shift in acquisitions earlier on. In, in phase one, and actually even earlier just because it was so compet…”
Koki Hirasaki Feb 28, 2019 ▶ 13:28 What’s with All the Bio M&A in 2019?: A Quick Take
Assertion Supported
Hirasaki: Spark acquisition vaulted Roche forward in gene therapy platform technology
“And then with the Spark acquisition same thing BMS, I'm sorry Roche was a laggard in the space, and now suddenly leaped ahead with not only a marketed gene therapy, but this AAV platform that it could use for delivering other gene therapies.”
Koki Hirasaki Feb 28, 2019 ▶ 5:59 What’s with All the Bio M&A in 2019?: A Quick Take
Insight
Hirasaki: Pharma Companies Wait for Phase 2a Data Before Doubling Down
“So, so, you know, it's typical to You know, see pharma companies wait for proof of concept, you know, phase IIa data that shows safety and some efficacy before doubling down.”
Koki Hirasaki Feb 28, 2019 ▶ 13:14 What’s with All the Bio M&A in 2019?: A Quick Take
Insight
Hirasaki: Top Corporate Buyers Fly In Executive Committees for Priority Biotech Deals
“I can tell you that big companies that really want an asset, that really want to show commitment to that program, will fly, you know, a big portion of their executive committee out in final negotiations to say, hey we're committed.”
Koki Hirasaki Feb 28, 2019 ▶ 17:55 What’s with All the Bio M&A in 2019?: A Quick Take
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Biotech Boards Increasingly Retain U.S. Rights and Out-License Ex-U.S. Rights
“What we've seen really over the last 10 years is a lot of boards want the companies to be able to be standalone. And so, what you see are, in this fairly typical and actually Spark is a good example, where the company will keep commercial rights for the U.S. A…”
Koki Hirasaki Feb 28, 2019 ▶ 19:14 What’s with All the Bio M&A in 2019?: A Quick Take
Insight
Pharma Demands Manufacturing Control Unless Assets Require Specialized Know-How
“If the asset is very critical to the business the pharma company will In all likelihood, want to control the manufacturing and distribution unless it is a very niche specialized product like gene therapies and AAVs, which require specialized know-how.”
Koki Hirasaki Feb 28, 2019 ▶ 20:33 What’s with All the Bio M&A in 2019?: A Quick Take
Assertion Partly supported
Hirasaki: Major biopharma companies faced critical patent cliffs in 2018
“Roche lost exclusivity on Zolaire and Rituxin. Pfizer lost exclusivity on Lyrica. And GSK lost exclusivity on Advair.”
Koki Hirasaki Feb 28, 2019 ▶ 1:30 What’s with All the Bio M&A in 2019?: A Quick Take
Assertion Supported
Hirasaki: Top 10 biopharma companies held $150B cash entering 2018
“And then on the topic of cash you know, the top 10 biopharma companies came into 2018 with about a hundred fifty billion dollars of cash on the balance sheet.”
Koki Hirasaki Feb 28, 2019 ▶ 1:50 What’s with All the Bio M&A in 2019?: A Quick Take
Assertion Supported
Hirasaki: NASDAQ Biotechnology Index dropped 7% in 2018
“Between January and December of 2018 the NASDAQ biotechnology index went down seven percent.”
Koki Hirasaki Feb 28, 2019 ▶ 2:07 What’s with All the Bio M&A in 2019?: A Quick Take
Assertion Supported
Hirasaki: AveXis acquisition gave Novartis an AAV9 platform for gene delivery
“So the lead asset AXVS- one-on-one it, you know, certainly is going to be probably best in class for SMA, but it also gave Novartis an AAV nine vector platform that it could use to deliver other gene therapies.”
Koki Hirasaki Feb 28, 2019 ▶ 5:36 What’s with All the Bio M&A in 2019?: A Quick Take
Assertion Supported
Hirasaki: Roche Allows Acquired Companies Like Spark to Operate Semi-Autonomously
“Some big pharma companies will just tend to fully integrate the company whereas others will like Roche and Spark will allow the acquired companies to operate semi-autonomously.”
Koki Hirasaki Feb 28, 2019 ▶ 16:10 What’s with All the Bio M&A in 2019?: A Quick Take

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
What’s with All the Bio M&A in 2019?: A Quick Take Feb 28, 2019 11m
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