Investor’s corner: interview with William Slattery of Deerfield

Bill Slattery-min
September 21, 2020
By Hallie French, Innovate Carolina

Tell us about yourself, your background, how long you’ve been with the firm.

I’m a Partner on the Biotherapeutics group at Deerfield and joined the Firm in 2000. Prior to Deerfield, I was a senior healthcare analyst at Amerindo Investment Advisors where I oversaw biotechnology investments. I’m also proud of my role as Chairman of Gilda’s New York City, a nonprofit that supports cancer patients and their families, which I hold near and dear to my heart. 

Tell us about Deerfield in terms of history and industry focus.

Deerfield was launched in 1994 as an investment firm dedicated to advancing healthcare through information, investment, and philanthropy—all toward the end goal of cures for disease, improved quality of life, and reduced cost of care. Our firm currently manages nearly $10 billion in assets. We generally maintain a combined portfolio of more than 200 private and public investments across the life science, medical device, diagnostic, digital health, and health service industries at all stages of evolution from start-up to mature company.  

Give us an idea of how many investment opportunities you see in a year and how many of those make it to an actual investment?
Pinnacle Hill will evaluate 24-30 programs annually on average. Our goal is to select a portion of these programs, generate a development work plan and underlying budget, and initiate funding on those programs upon approval from the Joint Steering Committee.   

What are the two or three things you look for in doing your first review of a startup?

Is the program innovative and is there an ability to get to market? What is the market need? (As a part of market need, there will be a review of the competition, if any). How strong is the management team? 

What stage of company do you typically invest in?

We invest in all stages of evolution from start-up to mature company.

Firms usually provide more than capital. What is your firm’s “value-add?”

Deerfield provides strategic, operational, and technical expertise to all its partners, with the goal of optimizing success and growth while reducing timelines to value-creating events and overall costs. The Firm is comprised of subject matter experts ranging from sector specific expertise (biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medtech, healthcare services), to subject matter expertise (discovery research, biostatistics, epidemiology, etc.). All competencies must be integrated in order to make scientific, operating and commercial assessments about new technologies. We have always believed that investigators in academic centers provide much of the insight that advances our understanding of disease.

Anything else we should know about you or your firm?

Among the Firm’s many initiatives, Deerfield is cultivating the Cure ecosystem in NYC, bringing together key players across the life science, digital health, and technology industries to jumpstart innovation and the fight against disease.

In addition, we are a strong advocate for diversity of backgrounds and ideas and are committed to addressing inequities through our programs, including Deerfield FellowsBreak into the Boardroom, and Women in Science. And through our Foundation, we are helping to tackle the social determinants of health.