October 6, 2025 • 34 mins
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The Business of Biotech is on location in Miami this week! For the first episode in this four-part series on the biotech scene in South Florida, Raquel Cabo, Founder and President of the Miami Biotech Collective, talks about her experiences as a member of the founding team at Ovid Therapeutics, why South Florida needed an organization to connect regional drug developers, what Miami offers to biotech companies and operators, and what gaps in the South Florida life sciences ecosystem still exist.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ben Comer (00:07):
Welcome back to the Business of biotech.
I'm your host, Ben Comer, ChiefEditor at Life Science Leader,
and today we're coming to youfrom Miami, Florida, for a
series of episodes recorded onlocation at the offices of
Catalyst Pharmaceuticals.
For this series, we're speakingwith some of the people
operating their companies andorganizations regionally here in
(00:27):
the Sunshine State.
And I can't think of a betterway to kick things off than by
talking with Raquel Cabo, whoover the summer launched the
Miami Biotech Collective, acommunity of executives shaping
the future of biotech in SouthFlorida.
Raquel has worked in patientadvocacy, global market access,
commercial strategy, andcorporate affairs, and was part
(00:48):
of the founding team at OvidTherapeutics.
I'm excited to hear about whatRaquel is building with the
Miami Biotech Collective, what'sunique about South Florida as
an emerging hub for the lifesciences, and what comes next.
I wanted to ask you first alittle bit about your background
prior to launching the MiamiBiotech Collective.
(01:09):
You worked for nearly a decadeat Ovid Therapeutics, and before
that, you worked in marketaccess at GE Healthcare.
You also worked at ColumbiaUniversity Medical Center as a
project manager in Alzheimer'sresearch.
What drew you initially to lifesciences?
Raquel Cabo (01:27):
So I it was a bit of a surprise to me that I ended
up in life sciences.
My career hasn't beennecessarily linear.
I grew up internationally.
I lived in the Middle East, inEurope, and before moving to
Miami in the 90s.
And because of my experience ofmoving around and going to a
(01:48):
lot of international schools, Iinitially thought I was going to
be a diplomat.
I went to university, I went tothe University of Pennsylvania
to study internationalrelations, and I went in with
that goal.
And then one day I had to takea core, uh core curriculum class
in um abnormal psychology, solike clinical psychology, and I
was blown away.
I was fascinated.
(02:09):
And that changed my careertrajectory completely from
international relations,international relations to
healthcare.
And um I spent some time alsoat UPenn working uh with Dr.
Seligman's lab in positivepsychology.
And from there I was completelyhooked.
(02:31):
So that's why I ended up atColumbia University Medical
Center working at the SergeywskiCenter, leading Alzheimer's
disease grants, working for aneuropsychologist, because I
have a multicultural background,Hispanic, lived
internationally, I was drawn tosome of the work that they were
(02:53):
looking at there, where theywere trying to understand
cultural and ethnic differencesin the way Alzheimer's was being
diagnosed.
So I did work with theWashington Heights community
with African Americans,, andpart of the work that I did
there was um supporting theneurologists.
(03:14):
As they as a volunteer at thememory disorders clinic, I
served as an interpreter.
So I would go around with aneurologist every week and um
help him treat people from thecommunity who were diagnosed
with Alzheimer's, and and youknow, they were accompanied by
their caregivers.
(03:34):
Um, and we saw a whole seriesof cases.
And it was really verydifficult to see that the
neurologist, who was sopassionate and he cared so much
about his patients, after eachvisit, he was like left like
deflated because there wasn'tany real good treatment to help
those the patients and thecaregivers.
(03:56):
There was no resources for thecaregivers, and you could really
see the broad impact of the canof the of the disease.
Um, and so for me that thatreally like struck a chord with
me.
And I from that point I decidedto want to think about how I
can make an impact at a moremacro level.
Um, and I felt that industrywas the perfect place to do
(04:19):
that, where working in withinindustry, we would able to bring
treatments to help those largeunmet needs that we're seeing on
a day-to-day basis at in the inthe Free Memories Disorders
Clinic or in the Huntington'sdisease clinic that I also was
um helping serve as aninterpreter.
Um and you know, my hope wasthen to be able to be part of a
(04:42):
group of a team or group ofpeople that were being able to
make a real difference.
Ben Comer (04:47):
Yeah.
And then you went to GEHealthcare and were working, I
believe, in market access,health economics and outcomes
research.
Um we just had um Rob Abbott,the CEO of iSport, uh, on the
last episode of Business ofBiotech, and he was really
making the case about theimportance of HEOR, not just for
big pharma, but for smallerbiotech, in particular um for
(05:10):
kind of painting the picture forinvestors, actually using it as
a as a tool to attractinvestors.
That that's a side note.
But I'm curious about how youknow you got interested in that
particular that specific field.
Raquel Cabo (05:24):
Yeah.
So um so it goes back to likewhen I was at Columbia and I was
looking at well how where howhow should I get into industry?
What's an area that I couldmake a difference in an area
that's emerging that you workthat combines um that really
captures your ability toarticulate the value and the
benefit of a medicine.
(05:44):
And at the time, so like thiswas just after the um financial
crisis.
There wasn't like a lot of, itwas a kind of a new and emerging
field, health economics.
And I spoke with one of mymentors who um at the time was,
you know, I think he might havebeen the CEO of Eli Lilly at the
(06:04):
time, was a one of my umfriend's fathers.
He said to me, look, look intohealth economics.
This is a field that has agrowing impact, is highly
relevant, but there aren't a lotof players in the space.
So um I lived in Tin and itticked a lot of the boxes where
you're using data,evidence-based approaches to
help build a value story andhelp substantiate the benefit of
(06:27):
a product and also helpcompanies think strategically
around well, is this productreally delivering some mini
meaningful value, or is thisjust incremental innovation?
Um and so I went to London, Idid my master's at the London
School of Economics inInternational Health Policy and
Economics.
So basically, the birthplace ofhealth economics where you know
(06:48):
we're nice and then AHS, andyou see it implemented every
single day decision-making formedicines.
And um, so that was a reallyamazing learning experience for
me.
Um and I spent some time atMedtronic in Switzerland uh
working in the Europeaneconomics team, health economics
(07:09):
team, um, applying thoseconcepts to like how devices,
implantable devices are beingreimbursed and marketed in
different European countries.
Um, and then at G Healthcare,it was the same thing.
And and the way it was used atG Healthcare was helping the
sales teams market theirproducts in a way that was more
(07:31):
focused less on productattributes, but more on
outcomes.
Like what is what are theoutcomes, what are the benefits
of applying these products orusing these products in your
hospital systems?
How are you helping patientsstay out of the hospital, get
out of the hospital faster, um,you know, improve and basically
improve whether that's like theclinician's ability to treat and
(07:54):
serve the patients or thepatient's ability to recover and
get out more quickly.
Um, and and then um when I metJeremy, you know, he's also one
of those individuals who'svisionary and sees ahead of the
curve.
And as a company at the time,there was probably less than 10
employees.
Um, but he understood the valueof looking at market access and
(08:18):
health economics really early,pre-phase two, especially for an
asset that was move uh movinginto a space where there had
been no drugs before.
And um and we thought verycarefully about how do we make
sure that our the evidence we'regenerating and the evidence
we're collecting are going tosupport access and get past, you
(08:39):
know, um, and help position thecompany favorably.
Once, you know, should a drugget approved, get past the
second hurdle, which isreimbursement and access.
And many times it's not justabout getting reimbursed, but
it's speed of reimbursement inthe US.
Um in Europe, it's a lot aboutit's where, what type of
(09:01):
reimbursement are you going tobe getting?
And it comes down to umevidence, and that takes time.
And so you need to start early.
Ben Comer (09:09):
No matter how innovative your product is, it's
worthless if patient can'tpatients can't access it, right?
Yeah.
Um I mentioned uh at the topthat you are part of uh the
founding team of Ovid.
Um, and I wanted to ask youabout Jeremy Levin.
Something something of a legendin the industry.
Uh, what what was it likeworking with him?
What did you learn from him?
(09:29):
Let me ask that.
Raquel Cabo (09:31):
Oh, well, it's hard to answer in a short period of
time.
Jeremy is, you know, one of themost charismatic, authentic
leaders you'll ever find.
And that's immediately when Isaw him speak at um FT
conference, I saw that.
And I was like, I want to workfor him.
Um so I handed him and um hehired me.
(09:53):
Uh and and he's he is one ofthose people who generally truly
wakes up every single daythinking about how am I gonna
get patients these medicines topatients.
It's not um, it's not fluff,it's real.
And um he is business savvy, heunderstands the markets, he
(10:15):
understands drug development,and he cares about his people.
He cares about the comp peopleat the company that he that
working for him, he cares aboutthe patient community.
Patients text him or call himor email him directly, and he
takes whatever they ask of himvery seriously.
And um, you know, there havebeen cases where, you know,
(10:38):
we've had to, you know, obvioushad to move away from um
advancing an asset in a certainindication, whether that's
because the study didn't turnout the way it was expected or
for other reasons.
But the commitment to the hiscommitment to the community
didn't end just because thecompany's priorities changed,
(10:59):
right?
So for example, Ovid was one ofthe first companies that like
gave the data from the trialsback to the patient community
for them to be able to use thatand advance their knowledge and
understanding of the disease andhelp them to continue
developing their assets.
So um he's he's as authentic,patient-centered as he comes off
(11:26):
to be, and also just abrilliant deal maker.
Uh just comes up, just has avery creative deals, um help the
company um grow to where it isand evolve and pivot over time,
and um find assets that othersjust overlooked and find
opportunities for those assetsum to like address unmet needs.
Ben Comer (11:48):
That's excellent.
Um, I want to ask you about theMiami Biotech Collective.
Um, what sparked it?
And you know, what um you know,what what do you hope to do
with it?
You know, what what are you umwhat I guess what drove you to
pursue it?
What what sparked the idea,what drove you to set it up?
Raquel Cabo (12:08):
So I grew up in Miami and I left Miami, and I
never thought I would be able tocome back to Miami because at
the time I thought there was nobiotech in Miami.
So it'd be a graveyard for mycareer.
COVID happened, we spent someextended time here, and and we
really, really wanted to comeback.
And um, you know, thanks tohybrid working, we made the
(12:30):
decision to come back and youknow, kind of figure out how it
impact our careers.
And and when I came down here,I realized that there's actually
a lot of biotech activityhappening.
It's just not as tangible andaccessible as it is when you go
when you're in a city likeBoston, right?
Where like you step outside andlike everybody around you works
(12:51):
at some biotech company.
So I would, you know, I wastraveling to a conference, I
would speak to someone, I wouldmeet someone, and they're like,
oh yeah, I live in SouthFlorida, or oh yeah, Ultragenics
has this Latin Americanheadquarters, and you know, the
person lives like five minutesfrom me.
So it was a lot of thoseconversations, and I and I
started to feel like, well,there's a lot of people down
here, there's a lot of operatorsdown here.
(13:13):
Um, but they're not um, we'renot connected.
And um there is there there'san initiative that was started
by um an individual named DoranJunger, who works at a head
hedge fund, I believe, whostarted a WhatsApp group.
And anybody who moved to Miamiwho worked in the biotech space
(13:34):
or medtech um would get added tothis WhatsApp group.
And that group over the coupleof years had grown to I think
now like 150 members.
So the people were there.
And even and even outside ofthat group, I was still meeting
people who were not plugged into this.
And and um I I'm just naturallya community builder, and I
(14:00):
wanted to just bring togethersome operators, so other like
peers.
So I initially started, youknow, talking to a couple of
folks like to like have adinner.
I'd been to a conference inBoston.
There's a and actually this iswhere I met Rich, like a dinner
with a bunch of other biotechexecs, and um, you know, it was
(14:20):
an intimate gathering, and youget to meet a few people.
So I thought, let me see if Ican pull together 15 people and
have a dinner.
And um through word of mouth, Iended up having about a hundred
people.
I'll say that they'reinterested and in getting
together.
And so I realized at that pointthat this is much bigger than I
(14:43):
had initially thought, and thatthere's uh interest, there's
people, and and then I found outthat there's people who are
putting willing to put moneytowards building a community.
Um, so so I founded the MiamiBiotech Collective with the idea
of providing a forum to connectoperators who are in South
Florida, so Jupiter down toMiami, um, and help folks deepen
(15:11):
and broaden their network,right?
So in Miami, you will know afew people, like you live in
Coconut Grove, you'll know acouple people in Coconut Grove,
you live in Aventura, you'llknow a few people in Aventura,
you're in Boca, you know thefolks at Boca, but you're not
connecting across those littlepockets.
Um and so that's what MiamiBiotech is doing.
It's bringing people come downfrom Boca from Del Rey to
(15:33):
events, and they're meetingindividuals that they normally
would not be crossing pathswith.
Um, there's also a stronginterest in um advancing the
region as a next biotech hub.
I think we had seen over thelast five years an influx of
people coming down here.
Like me, I came down here, Iliked it, I wanted it to stay.
(15:54):
A lot of people did the samething.
Um, an influx of capital, a lotof investors are coming down
here.
There's uh a lot of alternativetypes of investors, so like
family offices that you don'tsee in other regions.
There's been an incredibleamount of investment in the
health systems infrastructure.
Um and and with all of those,and then you also have Miami
(16:18):
Airport, which is like anincredible, like the number one
um logistics um airport in thenation, um, and does a
tremendous volume ofdistribution of pharmaceutical
products.
Um so you have a lot of thesefactors coming together.
Um, and there are individualswho are want to raise the
(16:39):
visibility of the region andalso want to start creating
relationships and partnershipswith other organizations.
But there wasn't really like aformalized way to do it.
So we're also facilitatingthat.
Um and and it's just been atremendous few months where just
an idea to have a dinner turnedinto a Miami Biotech
(17:01):
Collective, and now I have a lotof relationships and
partnerships.
One partnership with the BeaconCouncil, I have a partnership
with JP Morgan, and we have alot of exciting things coming
down the pipeline for the overthe next few months.
Ben Comer (17:14):
Yeah, well, the Miami Dade Beacon Council, I read on
their website that there were athousand life sciences companies
uh in in in the area, which uhwas amazing to me to to read
that statistic.
I think you have a member ofthe the Beacon Council on your
um women's leadership council,which I want to ask you about in
(17:34):
just a second.
But uh and I'm also gonna askyou about some of the gaps that
exist in the ecosystem.
But before that, what do youthink is the real pull?
Like what are what are the whatwould you describe as the the
chief attributes or the you knowthe biggest benefits to you
know starting a company or orheadquartering a company um in
(17:54):
South Florida?
Raquel Cabo (17:57):
So South Florida has the obvious lifestyle
benefits, right?
Like we that's everyone knowsthat.
That's like what everyonethinks that they come down here
to retire.
Yeah.
You have the weather.
So you have obvious the obviouslifestyle benefits.
There's no income tax.
So that's another um incentivefor individuals who want to come
down here.
Um and then there's, as Imentioned, there's this new
(18:20):
energy of the new folks who'vecome down here, which are
creating a really ripeenvironment for collaboration
and entrepreneurship, um, and alot of interest in helping
companies drive growth.
And while some of theinfrastructure is in the early
stages, the aptitude and theinterest to develop is there.
(18:45):
Um so, for example, like theBeacon Council, they're
prioritizing life sciences andum they're advancing they're you
know helping companies comedown here.
So Galderma just moved itsheadquarters to Miami.
Um, there's a couple othercompanies doing the same thing,
whether that's from other partsof the United States or from
(19:06):
other countries, Latin America,Spain.
Um, and the and then theuniversities, they're really
working closely.
They're super eager andinterested to work with um
industry to advance commongoals.
Ben Comer (19:21):
I was curious about that, you know, the relationship
with the universities and techtransfer offices and how how
active that scene was.
It sounds like it's active.
Raquel Cabo (19:30):
Yeah, well, it it is active.
So, first off, there's beenhuge investments.
So, University of Miami justhad a $50 million grant to the
Sylvester Cancer Center toadvance its research.
Um, they're building Converge,which is going to be shared lab
space.
Baptist Health had another $50million go to build a
(19:52):
neuroscience and expand itsneuroscience institute.
They're recruiting top talentfrom different c areas of the
country to like set up the tolike help them build the
infrastructure needed to runtop-tier clinical trials and
funding to give the researcherstheir their their staff to do
(20:13):
research.
Um and the individuals who workwho are working at these
hospitals are very eager to workwith industry and figure out
like how do we help you advanceyour your programs.
Ben Comer (20:27):
Right.
Yeah.
Um well let's let's talk aboutsome gaps.
I guess the thinking of acommercially successful biotech
company, let's say, you know,the full life cycle from startup
to successful approval tocommercialization, um, what what
gaps exist in the South Floridaecosystem?
(20:48):
And uh do you have you know anythoughts about how to fill
those?
Raquel Cabo (20:54):
So there are a lot of gaps because we're at the
early stages.
Um one gap is talent.
So there is great talent comingout of the universities, but
like other areas, they'reexperiencing the brain drain
because there isn't a place forthem to immediately go to that's
local.
(21:14):
Um the other the other type ofgap is seasoned operators um
because we haven't been homegrowing folks, right?
That's great.
Um and but that's somethingthat like with Miami Biotech
Collective, by like creating acommunity of seasoned biotech
operators, we're helping allowgive people the opportunities to
(21:35):
find the job after the job,which will help bring more
people down here.
Because one of the challengesthat established companies are
facing when they're trying torecruit is people are worried
that they're not going to findthe job after the job.
We all know that biotech isuncertain.
And so by helping build outthat community, create a better
(21:55):
um system for job um trading,yeah, yeah, that will help with
those.
Um other gaps are wet labspace.
So UM is building out thisshared space, but there's still
gaps around that.
You don't have that sameinfrastructure that you have in
other parts of the country.
Um while there is an increasein capital down here, uh the
(22:19):
volume, the numbers aren't ashigh as in other parts of the
country.
And a lot of the companies downhere are early stage, either
looking for seed funding, SeriesA, and so or that early stage
capital through family offices,VCs, hedge funds, those those
are um what will be driving thegrowth.
(22:41):
And I and the volume of thosetransactions aren't as high as
in other parts of the country,but it's it's it's growing.
Ben Comer (22:48):
Yeah.
Raquel Cabo (22:49):
Um and and I think that um, you know, once we have
those ingredients comingtogether, we'll be positioned to
really take off.
Once we get considering that wehave infrastructure, we are
have the universities, we havecompanies that are already
establishing and moving here,um, we have the logistics,
(23:14):
there's um increase inmanufacturing, folks are
building up manufacturingfacilities down here.
Um and and the region is wide,so we're going from Jupiter down
to Miami.
And and the attractiveness ofthe region is demonstrated by
this huge growth and number ofconferences that we're seeing.
So I'm calling it Miami BiotechWeek in March.
(23:36):
There's multiple biotechinvestment conferences.
LSX had their conference herelast year for the first time,
had 300 people attend.
Um UC EMERGE adding a biotechcomponent to their to their
conference.
Bio International is comingdown in March.
So people are seeing theopportunities down here and the
(23:56):
energy.
And I think all of the piecesthat will come together.
Ben Comer (24:01):
Um the Miami Biotech Collective has an advisory
board, uh, but also has awomen's leadership council.
And I was I wanted to ask youwhat the thinking behind the
women's leadership council was,and you know what that group
brings, you know, to the largercollective.
Raquel Cabo (24:18):
That that group can't was formed out of me
seeing a problem.
Yeah.
At my first event, we had over50 people attend.
And of those 50, there'sprobably five, six women in in
in attendance.
And it was it was reallyshocking.
(24:38):
And not only that, but in theinvite list, it was a majority
men.
And when I would talk to othermen, I'm like, we need to invite
more women, we need to includemore women.
Folks couldn't identify otherwomen to bring in.
So so we already we all knowthat there's an
underrepresentation of womenbroadly in biotech, but here it
(25:00):
feels a lot more acute, the theissue.
And um I thought the best wayto solve that is to bring women
together who can help one, bringin more women, but also find
ways to support women inbiotech.
And um the women's leadershipcouncil is made up of women um
(25:23):
in industry, um a recruiterwho's the CEO of her own
company, and there's uh we haveum Nydia from the Beacon
Council, and then um she's notup there yet, but Cecilia
Gonzalez, she's an investor.
So she's um also joining theadvisory of the women's
leadership council.
And the idea is for us toproblem solve together how we
(25:46):
can increase representation andcreate the support system for
other women who are in whateverstage of career they're in to
reach their achieve their goals.
Ben Comer (25:57):
Great.
Awesome.
Um we've talked, uh, I feellike a lot about this uh
already.
You know what?
I'm gonna skip it because we'vealready covered it.
I was gonna ask you your bestpitch to entrepreneurs and
founders who might be lookingaround for uh a place to set up
company headquarters.
I think we have the answeralready based on our
conversation.
But I um getting back to thecollective, uh, how would you
(26:19):
characterize your currentmembership?
Um, you know, what what it'scomprised of, the types of
companies and maybe the types ofuh people or or companies you'd
like to bring in in the future.
Raquel Cabo (26:30):
Great.
Yeah.
So um I have about 185 peoplesince June who've expressed
interest in being part of MiamiBiotech Collective.
So, and that number has almostdoubled since my last event in
um September.
Ben Comer (26:49):
Wow.
Raquel Cabo (26:49):
And the the representation is mixed, but
more than half, so about 60% areindividuals from biotechs.
And we do cat we arecategorizing um biotechs by
early stage, late stage,commercial, public, um, and just
a mix across the board.
We have um investors, so aboutum I'm doing mental math, like
(27:16):
20% are investors.
Okay, and we have academics.
Um, we have a relativelysmaller proportion of service
providers, and that'sdeliberate.
Like service providers arehugely important to the
ecosystem, but what we want todo is have like meaningful
relationships with serviceproviders, where the events and
(27:37):
the gatherings are opportunitiesfor operators, academics,
investors to be meeting andidentifying opportunities, but
and not being pitched by serviceproviders, but service
providers who are participatingare ones who are contributing to
the growth of the ecosystem.
Um, so it's very strategic andselective about how we engage
(27:57):
with with service providers.
Um and um we and yeah, I can't,I think yeah, sorry, I think
that's no, that's that's great.
Ben Comer (28:10):
Um I I was, you know, you mentioned you're a
community builder uh earlier inour conversation.
Um, and I was curious about,you know, if you're actually
facilitating between members,you know, qu somebody has a
question about maybe it's abouta service provider, or maybe
they're, you know, looking for aspecific uh type of talent.
Um is that part of the MiamiBiotech Collective's mission to
(28:35):
kind of connect people acrossthe region, answer questions for
people, help people sourcevarious things, or is it more of
kind of a networking and justcommunity-building uh type of
organization right now?
Raquel Cabo (28:50):
The the Miami Biotech's mission stems from the
community's needs.
And I've categorized them intothree, I put them into three
pillars, and and I've developedthose from speaking to folks who
are part of the group.
Now, an individual who's laterin their career may have a
different need than someonewho's earlier in their career or
someone who's you know startinga biotech and raising money
(29:13):
versus someone who you know hais capitalized.
So the needs are different, butwhat I did is through speaking
with a lot of folks, doing asurvey, I found that most
people's interests fell intothree different groups.
So one is engagement, someeting folks, connecting,
identifying ways to like tocollaborate, create
(29:33):
opportunities, expand theircareer, share best practices.
That's one pillar.
The second pillar is um sharingresource sharing or access to
resources.
And so that's where um theconnection between the investors
and the operators reallythrives.
Uh the number one interest formost people is access to
(29:57):
capital.
And from an investorperspective, What they're
interested in is identifyingcompanies that maybe were not on
their radar.
Yeah.
Um, so through our events andthrough conversations, we bring
those two together.
So, for example, at theSeptember event, I had a panel
of stealth of companies that arein stealth mode presenting.
(30:17):
I think one of the companiessaid that after that
presentation, an investor camein and, you know, made a
expressed interest in investinglike $15 million, right?
So that's what I'm saying.
Ben Comer (30:27):
Wow, that I mean that's hugely valuable for those
companies.
Yeah.
Raquel Cabo (30:31):
Exactly.
Um, and and then the third isinfluence.
So there's a lot of people whofeel really strongly.
There are a subset of folks whofeel strongly about building
out the ecosystem and findingways to best collaborate with
the academics, with the beaconcouncil, you know, and other um
development uh centercommittees.
Um and and those are one that,and so we're doing things to
(30:54):
help them.
So, for example, with theBeacon Council, we're gonna be
doing a series of roundtables.
The next round table is gonnahit the first round table is
gonna hit the topic of whyMiami.
So a lot of the questions thatyou're asking, um, but the idea
is to like crowdsource theanswers.
So what's going, what do wehave that's going for Miami?
What are the challenges and howcan we solve them?
(31:15):
And from there, identify waysthat we can actively bring
groups together to generatethose solutions.
So if the challenge is, oh,there isn't a pipeline of um
scientists and we're losing themall to Boston, well, maybe
because we have the Universityof Miami and Baptist sitting in
the same room as you know, someother pharma company, we can
(31:37):
find a way to create aninternship channel, right?
So finding those, identifyingthe problems and finding
tangible solutions to thoseproblems.
Um and so those are the threeareas engagement, influence, and
resources.
Ben Comer (31:51):
Um, you're focused on Jupiter South.
Uh, you mentioned earlier inour conversation that there were
different pockets even withinMiami where people were sort of
isolated, not connected to eachother.
I'm curious if the collectiveis interested in, you know,
working with Central Floridaeventually or the panhandle.
I mean, is it your intent tokind of scale up in the state of
(32:14):
Florida or just make you knowSouth Florida really strong?
Raquel Cabo (32:18):
We want to stick to South Florida.
Bioflorida covers the wholestate of Florida.
Ben Comer (32:22):
Yeah, true.
Raquel Cabo (32:23):
And Mark Glickman, who's the new CEO, or he's been
the CEO for the last 18 months,has been doing a tremendous job
of connecting and engaging withthe different regions and really
building up the whole state tosupport biotech, to support
medtech, engaging at a statelevel for advocacy and dent and
incentives.
(32:43):
Um so Mark's got the Floridacovered.
And for us, we're really tryingto like help grow and this this
region in collaboration withBio Florida and supporting their
efforts as well.
Um, but even though SouthFlorida's our favorite, Bio
Florida can't have favorites.
Ben Comer (33:04):
Yeah, right.
Exactly.
Um uh I've really enjoyed uhtalking with you, Raquel.
I I have one uh final questionfor you, and it's a
hypothetical, and I'm gonna askeveryone while I'm down here.
I'm I live in Central Florida,uh, so I could ask myself that
this question too, but umhypothetical question.
(33:24):
It's been a very quiethurricane season so far this
year, but let's assume you findyourself in the predicted path
of a category four, categoryfive hurricane.
Do you board everything up andhunker down, or do you pack up
the car and get out of Dodge?
Stay or go?
Raquel Cabo (33:42):
I think for us it's gonna be stay.
Ben Comer (33:44):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Stay, all right.
Raquel Cabo (33:45):
Put in some new impact windows.
I feel really good about ourreally good about that.
And um I think we can weather,weather the storm.
Ben Comer (33:57):
Uh for listeners, one more thing I did want to ask
you before we wrap up.
Um, for listeners who who mightbe in Florida or might be you
know thinking about moving toFlorida, what's the best way to
get in touch with the MiamiBiotech Collective?
Um, you know, how can they howcan they talk to you?
Raquel Cabo (34:12):
Well, on my website at the bottom, it says get in
touch with Raquel, and you cansend me a WhatsApp message.
So there's no more direct waythan that.
Ben Comer (34:21):
Simple enough and direct.
All right.
Uh we've been speaking withRaquel Cabo, founder of the
Miami Biotech Collective.
I'm Ben Comer, and you've justlistened to the Business of
Biotech.
Find us and subscribe anywhereyou listen to podcasts, and be
sure to check out new weeklyvideo casts of these
conversations every Monday underthe Business of Biotech tab at
(34:41):
lifescienceleader.com.
We'll see you next week, andthanks as always for listening.
Welcome back to the Business of biotech.
I'm your host, Ben Comer, ChiefEditor at Life Science Leader,
and today we're coming to youfrom Miami, Florida, for a
series of episodes recorded onlocation at the offices of
Catalyst Pharmaceuticals.
For this series, we're speakingwith some of the people
operating their companies andorganizations regionally here in
(00:27):
the Sunshine State.
And I can't think of a betterway to kick things off than by
talking with Raquel Cabo, whoover the summer launched the
Miami Biotech Collective, acommunity of executives shaping
the future of biotech in SouthFlorida.
Raquel has worked in patientadvocacy, global market access,
commercial strategy, andcorporate affairs, and was part
(00:48):
of the founding team at OvidTherapeutics.
I'm excited to hear about whatRaquel is building with the
Miami Biotech Collective, what'sunique about South Florida as
an emerging hub for the lifesciences, and what comes next.
I wanted to ask you first alittle bit about your background
prior to launching the MiamiBiotech Collective.
(01:09):
You worked for nearly a decadeat Ovid Therapeutics, and before
that, you worked in marketaccess at GE Healthcare.
You also worked at ColumbiaUniversity Medical Center as a
project manager in Alzheimer'sresearch.
What drew you initially to lifesciences?
Raquel Cabo (01:27):
So I it was a bit of a surprise to me that I ended
up in life sciences.
My career hasn't beennecessarily linear.
I grew up internationally.
I lived in the Middle East, inEurope, and before moving to
Miami in the 90s.
And because of my experience ofmoving around and going to a
(01:48):
lot of international schools, Iinitially thought I was going to
be a diplomat.
I went to university, I went tothe University of Pennsylvania
to study internationalrelations, and I went in with
that goal.
And then one day I had to takea core, uh core curriculum class
in um abnormal psychology, solike clinical psychology, and I
was blown away.
I was fascinated.
(02:09):
And that changed my careertrajectory completely from
international relations,international relations to
healthcare.
And um I spent some time alsoat UPenn working uh with Dr.
Seligman's lab in positivepsychology.
And from there I was completelyhooked.
(02:31):
So that's why I ended up atColumbia University Medical
Center working at the SergeywskiCenter, leading Alzheimer's
disease grants, working for aneuropsychologist, because I
have a multicultural background,Hispanic, lived
internationally, I was drawn tosome of the work that they were
(02:53):
looking at there, where theywere trying to understand
cultural and ethnic differencesin the way Alzheimer's was being
diagnosed.
So I did work with theWashington Heights community
with African Americans,, andpart of the work that I did
there was um supporting theneurologists.
(03:14):
As they as a volunteer at thememory disorders clinic, I
served as an interpreter.
So I would go around with aneurologist every week and um
help him treat people from thecommunity who were diagnosed
with Alzheimer's, and and youknow, they were accompanied by
their caregivers.
(03:34):
Um, and we saw a whole seriesof cases.
And it was really verydifficult to see that the
neurologist, who was sopassionate and he cared so much
about his patients, after eachvisit, he was like left like
deflated because there wasn'tany real good treatment to help
those the patients and thecaregivers.
(03:56):
There was no resources for thecaregivers, and you could really
see the broad impact of the canof the of the disease.
Um, and so for me that thatreally like struck a chord with
me.
And I from that point I decidedto want to think about how I
can make an impact at a moremacro level.
Um, and I felt that industrywas the perfect place to do
(04:19):
that, where working in withinindustry, we would able to bring
treatments to help those largeunmet needs that we're seeing on
a day-to-day basis at in the inthe Free Memories Disorders
Clinic or in the Huntington'sdisease clinic that I also was
um helping serve as aninterpreter.
Um and you know, my hope wasthen to be able to be part of a
(04:42):
group of a team or group ofpeople that were being able to
make a real difference.
Ben Comer (04:47):
Yeah.
And then you went to GEHealthcare and were working, I
believe, in market access,health economics and outcomes
research.
Um we just had um Rob Abbott,the CEO of iSport, uh, on the
last episode of Business ofBiotech, and he was really
making the case about theimportance of HEOR, not just for
big pharma, but for smallerbiotech, in particular um for
(05:10):
kind of painting the picture forinvestors, actually using it as
a as a tool to attractinvestors.
That that's a side note.
But I'm curious about how youknow you got interested in that
particular that specific field.
Raquel Cabo (05:24):
Yeah.
So um so it goes back to likewhen I was at Columbia and I was
looking at well how where howhow should I get into industry?
What's an area that I couldmake a difference in an area
that's emerging that you workthat combines um that really
captures your ability toarticulate the value and the
benefit of a medicine.
(05:44):
And at the time, so like thiswas just after the um financial
crisis.
There wasn't like a lot of, itwas a kind of a new and emerging
field, health economics.
And I spoke with one of mymentors who um at the time was,
you know, I think he might havebeen the CEO of Eli Lilly at the
(06:04):
time, was a one of my umfriend's fathers.
He said to me, look, look intohealth economics.
This is a field that has agrowing impact, is highly
relevant, but there aren't a lotof players in the space.
So um I lived in Tin and itticked a lot of the boxes where
you're using data,evidence-based approaches to
help build a value story andhelp substantiate the benefit of
(06:27):
a product and also helpcompanies think strategically
around well, is this productreally delivering some mini
meaningful value, or is thisjust incremental innovation?
Um and so I went to London, Idid my master's at the London
School of Economics inInternational Health Policy and
Economics.
So basically, the birthplace ofhealth economics where you know
(06:48):
we're nice and then AHS, andyou see it implemented every
single day decision-making formedicines.
And um, so that was a reallyamazing learning experience for
me.
Um and I spent some time atMedtronic in Switzerland uh
working in the Europeaneconomics team, health economics
(07:09):
team, um, applying thoseconcepts to like how devices,
implantable devices are beingreimbursed and marketed in
different European countries.
Um, and then at G Healthcare,it was the same thing.
And and the way it was used atG Healthcare was helping the
sales teams market theirproducts in a way that was more
(07:31):
focused less on productattributes, but more on
outcomes.
Like what is what are theoutcomes, what are the benefits
of applying these products orusing these products in your
hospital systems?
How are you helping patientsstay out of the hospital, get
out of the hospital faster, um,you know, improve and basically
improve whether that's like theclinician's ability to treat and
(07:54):
serve the patients or thepatient's ability to recover and
get out more quickly.
Um, and and then um when I metJeremy, you know, he's also one
of those individuals who'svisionary and sees ahead of the
curve.
And as a company at the time,there was probably less than 10
employees.
Um, but he understood the valueof looking at market access and
(08:18):
health economics really early,pre-phase two, especially for an
asset that was move uh movinginto a space where there had
been no drugs before.
And um and we thought verycarefully about how do we make
sure that our the evidence we'regenerating and the evidence
we're collecting are going tosupport access and get past, you
(08:39):
know, um, and help position thecompany favorably.
Once, you know, should a drugget approved, get past the
second hurdle, which isreimbursement and access.
And many times it's not justabout getting reimbursed, but
it's speed of reimbursement inthe US.
Um in Europe, it's a lot aboutit's where, what type of
(09:01):
reimbursement are you going tobe getting?
And it comes down to umevidence, and that takes time.
And so you need to start early.
Ben Comer (09:09):
No matter how innovative your product is, it's
worthless if patient can'tpatients can't access it, right?
Yeah.
Um I mentioned uh at the topthat you are part of uh the
founding team of Ovid.
Um, and I wanted to ask youabout Jeremy Levin.
Something something of a legendin the industry.
Uh, what what was it likeworking with him?
What did you learn from him?
(09:29):
Let me ask that.
Raquel Cabo (09:31):
Oh, well, it's hard to answer in a short period of
time.
Jeremy is, you know, one of themost charismatic, authentic
leaders you'll ever find.
And that's immediately when Isaw him speak at um FT
conference, I saw that.
And I was like, I want to workfor him.
Um so I handed him and um hehired me.
(09:53):
Uh and and he's he is one ofthose people who generally truly
wakes up every single daythinking about how am I gonna
get patients these medicines topatients.
It's not um, it's not fluff,it's real.
And um he is business savvy, heunderstands the markets, he
(10:15):
understands drug development,and he cares about his people.
He cares about the comp peopleat the company that he that
working for him, he cares aboutthe patient community.
Patients text him or call himor email him directly, and he
takes whatever they ask of himvery seriously.
And um, you know, there havebeen cases where, you know,
(10:38):
we've had to, you know, obvioushad to move away from um
advancing an asset in a certainindication, whether that's
because the study didn't turnout the way it was expected or
for other reasons.
But the commitment to the hiscommitment to the community
didn't end just because thecompany's priorities changed,
(10:59):
right?
So for example, Ovid was one ofthe first companies that like
gave the data from the trialsback to the patient community
for them to be able to use thatand advance their knowledge and
understanding of the disease andhelp them to continue
developing their assets.
So um he's he's as authentic,patient-centered as he comes off
(11:26):
to be, and also just abrilliant deal maker.
Uh just comes up, just has avery creative deals, um help the
company um grow to where it isand evolve and pivot over time,
and um find assets that othersjust overlooked and find
opportunities for those assetsum to like address unmet needs.
Ben Comer (11:48):
That's excellent.
Um, I want to ask you about theMiami Biotech Collective.
Um, what sparked it?
And you know, what um you know,what what do you hope to do
with it?
You know, what what are you umwhat I guess what drove you to
pursue it?
What what sparked the idea,what drove you to set it up?
Raquel Cabo (12:08):
So I grew up in Miami and I left Miami, and I
never thought I would be able tocome back to Miami because at
the time I thought there was nobiotech in Miami.
So it'd be a graveyard for mycareer.
COVID happened, we spent someextended time here, and and we
really, really wanted to comeback.
And um, you know, thanks tohybrid working, we made the
(12:30):
decision to come back and youknow, kind of figure out how it
impact our careers.
And and when I came down here,I realized that there's actually
a lot of biotech activityhappening.
It's just not as tangible andaccessible as it is when you go
when you're in a city likeBoston, right?
Where like you step outside andlike everybody around you works
(12:51):
at some biotech company.
So I would, you know, I wastraveling to a conference, I
would speak to someone, I wouldmeet someone, and they're like,
oh yeah, I live in SouthFlorida, or oh yeah, Ultragenics
has this Latin Americanheadquarters, and you know, the
person lives like five minutesfrom me.
So it was a lot of thoseconversations, and I and I
started to feel like, well,there's a lot of people down
here, there's a lot of operatorsdown here.
(13:13):
Um, but they're not um, we'renot connected.
And um there is there there'san initiative that was started
by um an individual named DoranJunger, who works at a head
hedge fund, I believe, whostarted a WhatsApp group.
And anybody who moved to Miamiwho worked in the biotech space
(13:34):
or medtech um would get added tothis WhatsApp group.
And that group over the coupleof years had grown to I think
now like 150 members.
So the people were there.
And even and even outside ofthat group, I was still meeting
people who were not plugged into this.
And and um I I'm just naturallya community builder, and I
(14:00):
wanted to just bring togethersome operators, so other like
peers.
So I initially started, youknow, talking to a couple of
folks like to like have adinner.
I'd been to a conference inBoston.
There's a and actually this iswhere I met Rich, like a dinner
with a bunch of other biotechexecs, and um, you know, it was
(14:20):
an intimate gathering, and youget to meet a few people.
So I thought, let me see if Ican pull together 15 people and
have a dinner.
And um through word of mouth, Iended up having about a hundred
people.
I'll say that they'reinterested and in getting
together.
And so I realized at that pointthat this is much bigger than I
(14:43):
had initially thought, and thatthere's uh interest, there's
people, and and then I found outthat there's people who are
putting willing to put moneytowards building a community.
Um, so so I founded the MiamiBiotech Collective with the idea
of providing a forum to connectoperators who are in South
Florida, so Jupiter down toMiami, um, and help folks deepen
(15:11):
and broaden their network,right?
So in Miami, you will know afew people, like you live in
Coconut Grove, you'll know acouple people in Coconut Grove,
you live in Aventura, you'llknow a few people in Aventura,
you're in Boca, you know thefolks at Boca, but you're not
connecting across those littlepockets.
Um and so that's what MiamiBiotech is doing.
It's bringing people come downfrom Boca from Del Rey to
(15:33):
events, and they're meetingindividuals that they normally
would not be crossing pathswith.
Um, there's also a stronginterest in um advancing the
region as a next biotech hub.
I think we had seen over thelast five years an influx of
people coming down here.
Like me, I came down here, Iliked it, I wanted it to stay.
(15:54):
A lot of people did the samething.
Um, an influx of capital, a lotof investors are coming down
here.
There's uh a lot of alternativetypes of investors, so like
family offices that you don'tsee in other regions.
There's been an incredibleamount of investment in the
health systems infrastructure.
Um and and with all of those,and then you also have Miami
(16:18):
Airport, which is like anincredible, like the number one
um logistics um airport in thenation, um, and does a
tremendous volume ofdistribution of pharmaceutical
products.
Um so you have a lot of thesefactors coming together.
Um, and there are individualswho are want to raise the
(16:39):
visibility of the region andalso want to start creating
relationships and partnershipswith other organizations.
But there wasn't really like aformalized way to do it.
So we're also facilitatingthat.
Um and and it's just been atremendous few months where just
an idea to have a dinner turnedinto a Miami Biotech
(17:01):
Collective, and now I have a lotof relationships and
partnerships.
One partnership with the BeaconCouncil, I have a partnership
with JP Morgan, and we have alot of exciting things coming
down the pipeline for the overthe next few months.
Ben Comer (17:14):
Yeah, well, the Miami Dade Beacon Council, I read on
their website that there were athousand life sciences companies
uh in in in the area, which uhwas amazing to me to to read
that statistic.
I think you have a member ofthe the Beacon Council on your
um women's leadership council,which I want to ask you about in
(17:34):
just a second.
But uh and I'm also gonna askyou about some of the gaps that
exist in the ecosystem.
But before that, what do youthink is the real pull?
Like what are what are the whatwould you describe as the the
chief attributes or the you knowthe biggest benefits to you
know starting a company or orheadquartering a company um in
(17:54):
South Florida?
Raquel Cabo (17:57):
So South Florida has the obvious lifestyle
benefits, right?
Like we that's everyone knowsthat.
That's like what everyonethinks that they come down here
to retire.
Yeah.
You have the weather.
So you have obvious the obviouslifestyle benefits.
There's no income tax.
So that's another um incentivefor individuals who want to come
down here.
Um and then there's, as Imentioned, there's this new
(18:20):
energy of the new folks who'vecome down here, which are
creating a really ripeenvironment for collaboration
and entrepreneurship, um, and alot of interest in helping
companies drive growth.
And while some of theinfrastructure is in the early
stages, the aptitude and theinterest to develop is there.
(18:45):
Um so, for example, like theBeacon Council, they're
prioritizing life sciences andum they're advancing they're you
know helping companies comedown here.
So Galderma just moved itsheadquarters to Miami.
Um, there's a couple othercompanies doing the same thing,
whether that's from other partsof the United States or from
(19:06):
other countries, Latin America,Spain.
Um, and the and then theuniversities, they're really
working closely.
They're super eager andinterested to work with um
industry to advance commongoals.
Ben Comer (19:21):
I was curious about that, you know, the relationship
with the universities and techtransfer offices and how how
active that scene was.
It sounds like it's active.
Raquel Cabo (19:30):
Yeah, well, it it is active.
So, first off, there's beenhuge investments.
So, University of Miami justhad a $50 million grant to the
Sylvester Cancer Center toadvance its research.
Um, they're building Converge,which is going to be shared lab
space.
Baptist Health had another $50million go to build a
(19:52):
neuroscience and expand itsneuroscience institute.
They're recruiting top talentfrom different c areas of the
country to like set up the tolike help them build the
infrastructure needed to runtop-tier clinical trials and
funding to give the researcherstheir their their staff to do
(20:13):
research.
Um and the individuals who workwho are working at these
hospitals are very eager to workwith industry and figure out
like how do we help you advanceyour your programs.
Ben Comer (20:27):
Right.
Yeah.
Um well let's let's talk aboutsome gaps.
I guess the thinking of acommercially successful biotech
company, let's say, you know,the full life cycle from startup
to successful approval tocommercialization, um, what what
gaps exist in the South Floridaecosystem?
(20:48):
And uh do you have you know anythoughts about how to fill
those?
Raquel Cabo (20:54):
So there are a lot of gaps because we're at the
early stages.
Um one gap is talent.
So there is great talent comingout of the universities, but
like other areas, they'reexperiencing the brain drain
because there isn't a place forthem to immediately go to that's
local.
(21:14):
Um the other the other type ofgap is seasoned operators um
because we haven't been homegrowing folks, right?
That's great.
Um and but that's somethingthat like with Miami Biotech
Collective, by like creating acommunity of seasoned biotech
operators, we're helping allowgive people the opportunities to
(21:35):
find the job after the job,which will help bring more
people down here.
Because one of the challengesthat established companies are
facing when they're trying torecruit is people are worried
that they're not going to findthe job after the job.
We all know that biotech isuncertain.
And so by helping build outthat community, create a better
(21:55):
um system for job um trading,yeah, yeah, that will help with
those.
Um other gaps are wet labspace.
So UM is building out thisshared space, but there's still
gaps around that.
You don't have that sameinfrastructure that you have in
other parts of the country.
Um while there is an increasein capital down here, uh the
(22:19):
volume, the numbers aren't ashigh as in other parts of the
country.
And a lot of the companies downhere are early stage, either
looking for seed funding, SeriesA, and so or that early stage
capital through family offices,VCs, hedge funds, those those
are um what will be driving thegrowth.
(22:41):
And I and the volume of thosetransactions aren't as high as
in other parts of the country,but it's it's it's growing.
Ben Comer (22:48):
Yeah.
Raquel Cabo (22:49):
Um and and I think that um, you know, once we have
those ingredients comingtogether, we'll be positioned to
really take off.
Once we get considering that wehave infrastructure, we are
have the universities, we havecompanies that are already
establishing and moving here,um, we have the logistics,
(23:14):
there's um increase inmanufacturing, folks are
building up manufacturingfacilities down here.
Um and and the region is wide,so we're going from Jupiter down
to Miami.
And and the attractiveness ofthe region is demonstrated by
this huge growth and number ofconferences that we're seeing.
So I'm calling it Miami BiotechWeek in March.
(23:36):
There's multiple biotechinvestment conferences.
LSX had their conference herelast year for the first time,
had 300 people attend.
Um UC EMERGE adding a biotechcomponent to their to their
conference.
Bio International is comingdown in March.
So people are seeing theopportunities down here and the
(23:56):
energy.
And I think all of the piecesthat will come together.
Ben Comer (24:01):
Um the Miami Biotech Collective has an advisory
board, uh, but also has awomen's leadership council.
And I was I wanted to ask youwhat the thinking behind the
women's leadership council was,and you know what that group
brings, you know, to the largercollective.
Raquel Cabo (24:18):
That that group can't was formed out of me
seeing a problem.
Yeah.
At my first event, we had over50 people attend.
And of those 50, there'sprobably five, six women in in
in attendance.
And it was it was reallyshocking.
(24:38):
And not only that, but in theinvite list, it was a majority
men.
And when I would talk to othermen, I'm like, we need to invite
more women, we need to includemore women.
Folks couldn't identify otherwomen to bring in.
So so we already we all knowthat there's an
underrepresentation of womenbroadly in biotech, but here it
(25:00):
feels a lot more acute, the theissue.
And um I thought the best wayto solve that is to bring women
together who can help one, bringin more women, but also find
ways to support women inbiotech.
And um the women's leadershipcouncil is made up of women um
(25:23):
in industry, um a recruiterwho's the CEO of her own
company, and there's uh we haveum Nydia from the Beacon
Council, and then um she's notup there yet, but Cecilia
Gonzalez, she's an investor.
So she's um also joining theadvisory of the women's
leadership council.
And the idea is for us toproblem solve together how we
(25:46):
can increase representation andcreate the support system for
other women who are in whateverstage of career they're in to
reach their achieve their goals.
Ben Comer (25:57):
Great.
Awesome.
Um we've talked, uh, I feellike a lot about this uh
already.
You know what?
I'm gonna skip it because we'vealready covered it.
I was gonna ask you your bestpitch to entrepreneurs and
founders who might be lookingaround for uh a place to set up
company headquarters.
I think we have the answeralready based on our
conversation.
But I um getting back to thecollective, uh, how would you
(26:19):
characterize your currentmembership?
Um, you know, what what it'scomprised of, the types of
companies and maybe the types ofuh people or or companies you'd
like to bring in in the future.
Raquel Cabo (26:30):
Great.
Yeah.
So um I have about 185 peoplesince June who've expressed
interest in being part of MiamiBiotech Collective.
So, and that number has almostdoubled since my last event in
um September.
Ben Comer (26:49):
Wow.
Raquel Cabo (26:49):
And the the representation is mixed, but
more than half, so about 60% areindividuals from biotechs.
And we do cat we arecategorizing um biotechs by
early stage, late stage,commercial, public, um, and just
a mix across the board.
We have um investors, so aboutum I'm doing mental math, like
(27:16):
20% are investors.
Okay, and we have academics.
Um, we have a relativelysmaller proportion of service
providers, and that'sdeliberate.
Like service providers arehugely important to the
ecosystem, but what we want todo is have like meaningful
relationships with serviceproviders, where the events and
(27:37):
the gatherings are opportunitiesfor operators, academics,
investors to be meeting andidentifying opportunities, but
and not being pitched by serviceproviders, but service
providers who are participatingare ones who are contributing to
the growth of the ecosystem.
Um, so it's very strategic andselective about how we engage
(27:57):
with with service providers.
Um and um we and yeah, I can't,I think yeah, sorry, I think
that's no, that's that's great.
Ben Comer (28:10):
Um I I was, you know, you mentioned you're a
community builder uh earlier inour conversation.
Um, and I was curious about,you know, if you're actually
facilitating between members,you know, qu somebody has a
question about maybe it's abouta service provider, or maybe
they're, you know, looking for aspecific uh type of talent.
Um is that part of the MiamiBiotech Collective's mission to
(28:35):
kind of connect people acrossthe region, answer questions for
people, help people sourcevarious things, or is it more of
kind of a networking and justcommunity-building uh type of
organization right now?
Raquel Cabo (28:50):
The the Miami Biotech's mission stems from the
community's needs.
And I've categorized them intothree, I put them into three
pillars, and and I've developedthose from speaking to folks who
are part of the group.
Now, an individual who's laterin their career may have a
different need than someonewho's earlier in their career or
someone who's you know startinga biotech and raising money
(29:13):
versus someone who you know hais capitalized.
So the needs are different, butwhat I did is through speaking
with a lot of folks, doing asurvey, I found that most
people's interests fell intothree different groups.
So one is engagement, someeting folks, connecting,
identifying ways to like tocollaborate, create
(29:33):
opportunities, expand theircareer, share best practices.
That's one pillar.
The second pillar is um sharingresource sharing or access to
resources.
And so that's where um theconnection between the investors
and the operators reallythrives.
Uh the number one interest formost people is access to
(29:57):
capital.
And from an investorperspective, What they're
interested in is identifyingcompanies that maybe were not on
their radar.
Yeah.
Um, so through our events andthrough conversations, we bring
those two together.
So, for example, at theSeptember event, I had a panel
of stealth of companies that arein stealth mode presenting.
(30:17):
I think one of the companiessaid that after that
presentation, an investor camein and, you know, made a
expressed interest in investinglike $15 million, right?
So that's what I'm saying.
Ben Comer (30:27):
Wow, that I mean that's hugely valuable for those
companies.
Yeah.
Raquel Cabo (30:31):
Exactly.
Um, and and then the third isinfluence.
So there's a lot of people whofeel really strongly.
There are a subset of folks whofeel strongly about building
out the ecosystem and findingways to best collaborate with
the academics, with the beaconcouncil, you know, and other um
development uh centercommittees.
Um and and those are one that,and so we're doing things to
(30:54):
help them.
So, for example, with theBeacon Council, we're gonna be
doing a series of roundtables.
The next round table is gonnahit the first round table is
gonna hit the topic of whyMiami.
So a lot of the questions thatyou're asking, um, but the idea
is to like crowdsource theanswers.
So what's going, what do wehave that's going for Miami?
What are the challenges and howcan we solve them?
(31:15):
And from there, identify waysthat we can actively bring
groups together to generatethose solutions.
So if the challenge is, oh,there isn't a pipeline of um
scientists and we're losing themall to Boston, well, maybe
because we have the Universityof Miami and Baptist sitting in
the same room as you know, someother pharma company, we can
(31:37):
find a way to create aninternship channel, right?
So finding those, identifyingthe problems and finding
tangible solutions to thoseproblems.
Um and so those are the threeareas engagement, influence, and
resources.
Ben Comer (31:51):
Um, you're focused on Jupiter South.
Uh, you mentioned earlier inour conversation that there were
different pockets even withinMiami where people were sort of
isolated, not connected to eachother.
I'm curious if the collectiveis interested in, you know,
working with Central Floridaeventually or the panhandle.
I mean, is it your intent tokind of scale up in the state of
(32:14):
Florida or just make you knowSouth Florida really strong?
Raquel Cabo (32:18):
We want to stick to South Florida.
Bioflorida covers the wholestate of Florida.
Ben Comer (32:22):
Yeah, true.
Raquel Cabo (32:23):
And Mark Glickman, who's the new CEO, or he's been
the CEO for the last 18 months,has been doing a tremendous job
of connecting and engaging withthe different regions and really
building up the whole state tosupport biotech, to support
medtech, engaging at a statelevel for advocacy and dent and
incentives.
(32:43):
Um so Mark's got the Floridacovered.
And for us, we're really tryingto like help grow and this this
region in collaboration withBio Florida and supporting their
efforts as well.
Um, but even though SouthFlorida's our favorite, Bio
Florida can't have favorites.
Ben Comer (33:04):
Yeah, right.
Exactly.
Um uh I've really enjoyed uhtalking with you, Raquel.
I I have one uh final questionfor you, and it's a
hypothetical, and I'm gonna askeveryone while I'm down here.
I'm I live in Central Florida,uh, so I could ask myself that
this question too, but umhypothetical question.
(33:24):
It's been a very quiethurricane season so far this
year, but let's assume you findyourself in the predicted path
of a category four, categoryfive hurricane.
Do you board everything up andhunker down, or do you pack up
the car and get out of Dodge?
Stay or go?
Raquel Cabo (33:42):
I think for us it's gonna be stay.
Ben Comer (33:44):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Stay, all right.
Raquel Cabo (33:45):
Put in some new impact windows.
I feel really good about ourreally good about that.
And um I think we can weather,weather the storm.
Ben Comer (33:57):
Uh for listeners, one more thing I did want to ask
you before we wrap up.
Um, for listeners who who mightbe in Florida or might be you
know thinking about moving toFlorida, what's the best way to
get in touch with the MiamiBiotech Collective?
Um, you know, how can they howcan they talk to you?
Raquel Cabo (34:12):
Well, on my website at the bottom, it says get in
touch with Raquel, and you cansend me a WhatsApp message.
So there's no more direct waythan that.
Ben Comer (34:21):
Simple enough and direct.
All right.
Uh we've been speaking withRaquel Cabo, founder of the
Miami Biotech Collective.
I'm Ben Comer, and you've justlistened to the Business of
Biotech.
Find us and subscribe anywhereyou listen to podcasts, and be
sure to check out new weeklyvideo casts of these
conversations every Monday underthe Business of Biotech tab at
(34:41):
lifescienceleader.com.
We'll see you next week, andthanks as always for listening.
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