Former Investor Who Chose Broadcasting Over Biotech ETFs - Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;35;11
Unknown
Welcome back to Pathfinders podcast series from RBC Capital Markets, where we uncover the key trends and catalysts shaping the fast moving world of biotech and pharma. I'm your host, Joe Coletti. In this episode, we continue broadcasting from RBC's Global Health Care Conference here in New York, and we're talking to Brad Loncar, founder of Biotech TV, a new media channel dedicated to producing independent news and educational content about the biotech industry and the science behind it.

00;00;35;13 - 00;00;54;02
Unknown
Brad, thanks for joining us. It's great to be here. So we have the privilege of actually having you here doing a bunch of interviews with different with different CEOs and companies throughout the day. But I think we wanted our listeners to maybe learn a little bit more about you first and why you kind of started biotech, TV, TV.

00;00;54;04 - 00;01;18;24
Unknown
Yeah. So I was running a biotech focused investment firm. I created a couple of ETFs that were biotech focused, and I've always been a big social media person, which is weird because in real life I'm a total introvert. Somehow on social media, I'm an extrovert. But like I was on Twitter very early, for example, and I've always enjoyed experimenting.

00;01;18;24 - 00;01;44;06
Unknown
So when Twitter started to allow videos, which was, you know, a handful of years before the pandemic, whenever I would go to like a conference like ASCO or something like that, I'd grab an analyst friend or CEO friend. And I do like back then you could only the time limit was 2 minutes. So like we do a very quick little two minute video and I was always shocked at the reaction.

00;01;44;06 - 00;02;05;16
Unknown
Like I had videos that had like 50,000 views or, you know, tons of likes. And the feedback was always amazing. And so I'm very entrepreneurial. And in the back of my head, I always said, there's something there. You know, there's like an unmet need for this. So I had always kind of registered that in my mind that this could be a business.

00;02;05;16 - 00;02;30;06
Unknown
And fast forward to a year ago. My investment firm, like my ETFs, were really cool products, but like biotech was tough, you know, for a couple of years. And I just like, wasn't having fun. Like I was working hard managing a business that wasn't thriving. And so so I said to myself, This is your opportunity to pursue your passion and do videos and turn it into a real thing.

00;02;30;06 - 00;02;54;10
Unknown
And so I did that almost a year ago. So that was June 1st. And, you know, I created a website and I went to Boston literally for like six months and I said, I'm just going to put this out there. And that's what I've been doing. And now it's starting to grow and scale and and in the very beginning stages turned into what my vision for it is over the longer term.

00;02;54;13 - 00;03;23;22
Unknown
That's great. Maybe you can give us a little bit more of an overview, too, about the different ways the channel is trying to bring biotech to life across biotech, TV, you, company News, Bright Minds, tech and tourist platforms. Love for you to elaborate a little bit more on that. Yeah, those are just kind of like loose categories and part of the main message, like if somebody goes to the website and just finds it for the first time, part of the message that I'm trying to send is news is a huge component of it.

00;03;23;24 - 00;03;46;01
Unknown
But it's not just for biotech news. It's to show off cool science, things like that. So like some of the most popular videos that I do have nothing to do with news. It's a behind the scenes tours of biotech companies. And so I wanted to create something that made it clear that it wasn't just news and the university one is actually, I think, really cool.

00;03;46;04 - 00;04;06;03
Unknown
To be honest, it hasn't really taken off yet like I had hoped it would. And the idea there is there's so many young people doing interesting, like working in labs or doing interesting post-doc work, you know, things like that. And that section of the website is there. If there are any young people out there, you can submit your own content.

00;04;06;03 - 00;04;32;04
Unknown
And so I always say it's like a professional version of what people are doing on Instagram and TikTok, the difference being if you post something on TikTok, Albert BOURLA is probably not going to see it. But like hopefully he watches biotech TV. Albert BOURLA might like. Important people in our industry are part of my distribution network, and so your work as a young person can be profiled on this network where important people might see it.

00;04;32;06 - 00;04;52;07
Unknown
Now, I think another thing to point out is your impartiality, which is a big part of what you're trying to do. So you've committed to not trading or holding individual biotech stocks while you have editorial control of the channel. Was the transition from expert investor to sort of commentator? Tricky, you know, do you miss investing in the biotech markets?

00;04;52;07 - 00;05;14;01
Unknown
Yeah, I did that because I wanted to go the extra mile because literally for over a decade people know me as like Brad, the investor. And so when I put it out there, one concern that I had is people thinking in the back of their mind, is there an agenda here? Or C, promoting some company that he's investing in or involved with and all that.

00;05;14;01 - 00;05;39;01
Unknown
And so the only way to quell that type of thing is to do it all the way. And so when I launched this, by the way, I no longer have those ETFs like I sold that firm and like all of that. And so, yeah, I don't hold it, hold or trade. I have nothing to do with biotech stocks ever since I've been doing biotech TV so that there's no even shadow of a doubt as it relates to things like that.

00;05;39;06 - 00;05;55;29
Unknown
So I think given my background, that was, you know, the right thing to do. What about your plans going forward? I mean, you talked you talked a little bit about some of the channels. Do you as you continue to sort of grow and expand, what are you sorry, aiming for? What are you dreaming big over at biotech TV for the next phase?

00;05;56;00 - 00;06;19;20
Unknown
Yeah, I mean, a few things that I would say is that our industry is awesome, but I feel like we all live in the same circle, which is people who follow biotech companies and that's awesome. But I feel like that audience is probably a couple hundred thousand people. There's millions of people who are interested in science. So at the end of the day, I want to I want the million people audience.

00;06;19;20 - 00;06;43;15
Unknown
And so, yeah, so there's that. And honestly, I'm kind of exhausted. I've truly been a one man show in every respect. You can see it here at the conference. I'm recording that, I'm editing that, I'm uploading, I'm scheduling like, you know, the rest of the week and all of that. And so I want to start scaling. And thankfully, through the support of our sponsors, I've been able to start that.

00;06;43;15 - 00;07;06;07
Unknown
So I hired a really amazing person in Philadelphia who's doing content there. You all know what a hotbed of like cell and gene therapy Philadelphia is. And I hired another amazing person in San Diego who's covering that for me. So hopefully that's just the start. And if I had it my way, hopefully some support staff too. So hopefully that'll be coming soon.

00;07;06;10 - 00;07;26;12
Unknown
So let's maybe shift a little bit to some of the things you're hearing. You know, you've done a ton of interviews with C-level folks at many conferences this year, including this one. You know, when you think about whether it's the macro environment, whether it's specific themes and trends in the biotech space, like what are you hearing the most in these conversations?

00;07;26;14 - 00;07;46;28
Unknown
I just think that, like we're we truly are entering a new era of medicine. Like, I was just at the SGC CTE annual meeting in Baltimore last week, which is like a solid gene therapy conference. And it's really amazing. People have heard that term CRISPR, every human being has heard the term CRISPR. By now. I would say even my mom has heard it.

00;07;46;28 - 00;08;10;28
Unknown
So if she's heard it, everybody has heard it. And what a lot of people don't know is that's like version 1.0 of genetic medicines and there's some really cool technologies where people are able to do gene replacement gene writing all kinds of like next level things. And so right now, a lot of that stuff is in animals. That was mostly what was reported on at that conference.

00;08;10;28 - 00;08;31;24
Unknown
But pretty soon it's it's it's going to be in humans. And I think there's going to be a lot of cool, transformational stuff. So you hit my key word, transformational because we talk a lot about transformational innovation just in this entire space. You know, we haven't touched on A.I.. Just curious, in your conversations with folks, how was A.I. coming up?

00;08;31;24 - 00;08;50;21
Unknown
How are people talking about A.I. as part of what they're doing? Is it a little less or a little bit more right now? Well, I can answer it this way. As somebody who gets pitched by like PR people every single day, I've been pitched and I've done like a million A.I. stories, and we're here at an investment conference, A lot of your audience is investors.

00;08;50;21 - 00;09;14;20
Unknown
And the one thing I'd say is a media person and an investor, it's the same thing. It's really hard. Everything sounds awesome. Like you sit down at a table and somebody says, We've got the biggest database and we've got the best algorithm for analyzing it, and we're going to totally revolutionize drug development. There's literally a thousand people that have that same story, and it's all sounds awesome.

00;09;14;20 - 00;09;36;13
Unknown
And the biggest advice that I would have for investors out there is you've got to really understand how to do the due diligence on on those types of stories. And I don't have all the answers, but I think that's going to be one of the biggest investing challenges over the next couple of years is separating. Like it's like anything else.

00;09;36;13 - 00;09;58;20
Unknown
There's a whole spectrum of highly credible stuff and you know, the opposite and everything in between. And I think I will revolutionize a lot of things. And I think if you're going to be a successful investor over the next couple of years, you've got to figure out how to separate the wheat from the chaff, essentially. So we want to give you a big plug here.

00;09;58;20 - 00;10;24;14
Unknown
We want to encourage all our listeners to check out biotech TV. Can you maybe tell them the website, give us some of the information? Yeah, it's just biotech. TVGuide.com I paid $1,000 for that. Could have been worse. It was available. And when I interview someone, the whole video goes on biotech. TVGuide.com And then on like every social network there is, we put out a clip and say to see the whole video, click here.

00;10;24;14 - 00;10;44;10
Unknown
And I would say the place that most people use it is LinkedIn and definitely follow biotech TV. It's got its own account on LinkedIn itself, and that's really the best way to know when new content is out there. Excellent. Brad, thanks for stopping by. Good luck with the rest of your interviews today and it was great to meet you.

00;10;44;13 - 00;11;15;26
Unknown
Thanks a lot for having me. That's all for this episode. Thanks again for listening to Pathfinders and BioPharma brought to you by RBC Capital Markets. Please remember to subscribe to get more great content and be alerted about future episodes. This episode was recorded on May 14th, 2024. If you'd like to learn more or continue the conversation, please visit our become forward slash biopharma.

00;11;16;02 - 00;11;19;10
Unknown
See you next time.

00;11;19;12 - 00;11;46;05
Unknown
This content is based on information available at the time it was recorded and is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer to buy or sell or solicitation. And no recommendations are implied. It is outside the scope of this communication to consider whether it is suitable for you and your financial objectives.