Q&A with Monika Vnuk: Insights from Two Decades as a Life Sciences Dealmaker
At Blackstone, we focus on investing in fast-growing sectors shaping the modern economy – such as life sciences, an area that’s seen rapid growth and innovation in recent decades. Blackstone Life Sciences combines deep clinical and investing expertise to identify and advance today’s most promising therapies, technologies, and life sciences businesses. In 2021, Monika Vnuk, former Vice President of Worldwide Business Development at Pfizer, joined BXLS as a managing director. Monika brings a medical education and a prolific career in life sciences dealmaking to BXLS, having recently helped broker the Pfizer and BioNTech partnership for their COVID-19 vaccine. Below, Monika shares insights from her decades of experience in the life sciences and shares what excites her at BXLS and in the industry going forward.
Q: Can you start by telling us about your career path before coming to Blackstone, and some of your lessons learned along the way?
I think of myself as a dealmaker with a scientific perspective. I started my career in the early 2000s as an investor at a venture capital firm, right after graduating from medical school. My next role was as an investment banker, helping life sciences companies IPO. Both of these positions gave me a lot of exposure to company formation, exciting scientific innovations, and how life sciences companies mature. I also learned to anticipate volatility in markets and plan ahead, because I witnessed the consequences of both the burst of the dot-com bubble and the Great Financial Crisis.
In the wake of the financial crisis, I decided to join Pfizer as an in-house deal maker in the business development group, where I stayed for 13 years. One of the biggest learnings I took from my time there is to always consider the end consumer, the patient, when you’re developing a product. Keeping their experiences and needs front-of-mind is essential not only to making the most effective product, but also to creating value for shareholders and other stakeholders. That philosophy characterizes our approach at BXLS.
Q: How have you seen the life sciences space evolve over the course of your career?
One thing that stood out to me is how quickly technology has progressed just in the time I’ve been in the industry. In 2002 – two years after I started my career – a company called Alnylam, which Blackstone has since invested in, was just starting to explore the potential of RNA therapies, a technology that was still very much in its infancy at the time. Twenty years later, two leading COVID-19 vaccines based on that same RNA technology were developed in just nine months.
These sorts of technological advancements have been possible in large part because of the inflow of capital into the space. In the early 2000s, a $400 to 500 million life sciences venture fund was considered large. Today, we’re looking at fund sizes of $5 billion. The industry has grown by a full order of magnitude. That’s why you’re seeing a proliferation of top talent and public and private companies in the space.
Q: You led the negotiations for the Pfizer and BioNTech partnership that eventually resulted in the first FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine. What are some of your reflections looking back on that process?
I’ll start by saying I’m immensely grateful to have had a part in finding a solution to a worldwide crisis. It was definitely the deal of a lifetime.
When we did the deal in March 2020, we didn’t fully appreciate how monumental that vaccine would eventually become. Our main priority at the time was getting things done quickly so that Pfizer and BioNTech’s scientists could begin collaborating as soon as possible. In general, I think COVID taught us that it takes a combination of expertise, teamwork, flexibility, and courage to find solutions to major crises like these, and those were all present in the team that put together this deal.
In retrospect, the vaccine has really surpassed everybody’s expectations – not In retrospect, the vaccine has really surpassed everybody’s expectations – not only in terms of how fast it could be developed but also how quickly manufacturing capacity could be scaled up. As a dealmaker, it was encouraging to see how nimble the most senior management was willing to be when the stakes were as high as they were in this case. There was willingness to meet daily with the deal team, make decisions very quickly and embrace more risk than one might typically be comfortable with in a deal.
Q: How do you see the landscape for life sciences dealmaking against the current market backdrop?
Right now, we’re seeing a confluence of three important dynamics in the market. First is growing volatility, which is leading public investors to significantly pull back on their investments in life sciences. Secondly, there’s the rise in innovation I mentioned that’s driven an increased number of products in the biotech and pharma pipeline. Finally, many big pharma and big biotech firms are facing significant loss of exclusivity on their patents in the next 5 to 10 years.
So you have rich pipelines, upcoming patent cliffs, and a public market that, at this time, is somewhat reluctant to put capital to work. And that’s where Blackstone Life Sciences comes in.
Blackstone Life Sciences is able to deploy capital to promising assets that are out there, help move them through the pipeline and ultimately replenish the top line of therapies.”
Monika Vnuk
Q: What are you most looking forward to in the year ahead?
I think the best years for the life sciences industry are still ahead of us. COVID highlighted the positive impact that biotech and pharma can have on society, and I think we’re going to see more and more of that beyond vaccines, in other therapeutic areas: creating solutions that get to market faster and are more impactful for patients.
In my role, I’m focused on creating deal flow for BXLS by leveraging my network in life sciences and beyond. Another big priority is mentoring and growing our next generation of investors. We have a great team here – I’m so impressed with the talent and capabilities, especially those of the younger team members, and I think there’s enormous capacity for them and BXLS more broadly to grow.
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