Whether preparing for an initial or subsequent raise or partnership discussions, you need materials that clearly demonstrate why your opportunity is worth pursuing — whether that's investment potential for VCs or strategic value for pharma partners.
Scientific Translation
Translating complex science into materials that maintain accuracy while being accessible. This means creating content that's scannable by busy professionals who review dozens of opportunities, but with enough technical substance to demonstrate credibility.
Audience Sophistication
Whether partnering or fundraising, your evaluators include former industry executives, PhD-level professionals, and experienced investors who scrutinize every claim. Oversimplification destroys credibility, but so does overclaiming beyond your data.
Information Protection
Making critical decisions about what belongs in public materials versus confidential presentations versus data rooms. This isn't just strategic — it's about protecting confidential information that could affect future positioning or cause actions from competitors.
With this context, Alacrita specializes in early-stage biotech fundraising and partnership preparation. This focus, combined with substantial in-house expertise and access to 350+ consultants across 29 functional disciplines, 22 disease areas, and 18 product modalities, ensures each project includes domain experts with the matching technical and scientific background. When your evaluators include former industry executives who know your therapeutic area intimately, the science and positioning must be handled by people who understand both the technical details and the business context.
If a project requires expertise outside our capabilities, we'll say so at the start rather than take on work we can't execute properly.
For companies that need help developing the underlying business case or financial model, this work connects with Alacrita's business planning and fundraising and investor support services.
The Evaluation Process
How VCs and BD&L teams evaluate opportunities, from first look to close.
Initial Screening
- Does this fit our mandate?
- Is the team credible?
- Is the company serious and organized?
- Are there obvious red flags?
Non-confidential deck, website, team backgrounds
Worth a meeting, go under CDA, or pass
Active Evaluation
- Is the science valid and differentiated?
- Is the commercial opportunity significant?
- Is the development plan realistic?
- Is the team capable of executing?
Confidential deck, data, financials, multiple management meetings
Move to formal due diligence and term sheet, or pass
Due Diligence
- Does everything hold up under scrutiny?
- Are the IP positions defensible?
- Are there undisclosed risks or gaps?
- Is the regulatory path realistic?
Data room, IP review, legal and financial audit, expert consultations
Proceed to close or walk away
For pharma BD&L teams, evaluation approaches vary by focus and seniority. Some prioritize technical differentiation and development feasibility, others emphasize market positioning and strategic fit. Understanding which type of team you're presenting to — and adapting the emphasis accordingly — affects how you frame the science, what level of detail to include, and whether to lead with mechanism or market opportunity.
Where It Gets Complicated
Investor materials for development-stage companies have constraints worth getting right.
Scientific Accuracy vs. Accessibility
Claims must match your actual data while remaining accessible to business professionals. This means precise language that reflects your evidence appropriately — what you've demonstrated versus what you're projecting. Authentic data presentations that demonstrate scientific rigor rather than marketing polish.
Competitive Positioning
When your potential partner or investor has interests in competing approaches, differentiation requires strategic nuance. Clear technical advantages must be demonstrated without disparaging existing products or creating relationship risks. This requires understanding both the science and the business dynamics.
Information Architecture
Not everything belongs on the website or in the pitch deck. Strategic decisions about what's public versus what stays in the confidential deck versus what's reserved for the data room affect how the opportunity is perceived and evaluated by sophisticated audiences.
Getting these right requires understanding both the regulatory environment and what different types of evaluators prioritize when assessing early-stage opportunities.
What Gets Delivered
Website
The most public piece of your story — and a first check for credibility. Investors and BD&L teams check the website. The messaging, the claims, the competitive differentiation all have to hold up. Getting this right means stage-appropriate language, defensible positioning, and a clear articulation of the science and opportunity.
Pitch Decks
Two versions calibrated for different audiences and stages of evaluation. The non-confidential deck generates initial interest and establishes credibility with enough technical substance to warrant deeper conversations. The confidential deck supports detailed evaluation with data, financials, and competitive analysis. Both maintain scientific integrity with authentic data presentations rather than marketing polish.
Consistent Messaging
Translating complex science into compelling narratives that remain scientifically accurate. This requires understanding how R&D-focused BD teams evaluate technical differentiation versus how commercially-oriented partners assess market positioning. The challenge is crafting language that demonstrates scientific rigor to PhD-level reviewers while being accessible to business development professionals — without oversimplifying the science or overclaiming beyond the data.
Supporting Materials
Executive summary, one-pager, team bios, corporate overview. The documents that round out the package and give investors what they need at each stage of the process.
Recent Work
Fundraising Deck for Preclinical Oncology Company
Preclinical biotech with a novel chemotherapeutic mechanism, preparing for first institutional raise in a crowded oncology landscape. The team, led by a biotech financing specialist and including an oncologist, worked with client leadership to sharpen the value proposition, define the clinical development path, and restructure how the science would be presented to investors.
Situation
Preclinical stage, preparing for first institutional raise in competitive therapeutic area
Core Challenge
Translate complex mechanism into clear investment thesis; differentiate against established approaches; identify and address gaps in the investment case
Outcome
New investor pitch deck with sharpened positioning on what makes this mechanism different, restructured scientific presentation that led with clinical relevance rather than basic science, and clear articulation of the development path. The process surfaced gaps, including the need for additional preclinical experiments, which the client prioritized before going out to investors.
Market Framing for Pain Management Startup
US biotech with a non-opioid analgesic drug and delivery device, preparing for first external round. The challenge was a large addressable market with multiple potential entry points - the story needed focus. Led by a consultant with direct experience commercializing pain management products in the US market, the work prioritized patient segments by type of pain and setting of care.
Situation
Pre-fundraise, needed to articulate commercial opportunity clearly
Core Challenge
Multiple credible market entry points; needed to prioritize and frame a focused story for investor audience rather than trying to address everything
Outcome
Defined go-to-market priorities with the client, then translated into an investor deck that framed a clear, focused commercial opportunity. Segmentation by pain type and care setting, with value proposition mapped to specific unmet needs rather than a broad market size claim.
Partnership Deck for Vaccine Platform Company
European biotech with a novel vaccine delivery platform, seeking partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies. The company needed professional materials designed to generate confidential disclosure agreements from pharma BD&L teams while navigating complex competitive dynamics. Led by a team including a chief scientist with 25+ years of immunology and vaccine development experience and a BD strategist with direct product launch experience across biologics and vaccines.
Situation
Platform technology with compelling preclinical data, preparing for partnership outreach to global pharmaceutical companies with existing vaccine portfolios
Core Challenge
Transform internal presentation materials into a professional non-confidential partnering deck; ensure regulatory compliance in all public claims; address competitive positioning challenges when potential partners manufacture incumbent products
Deliverable
Professional presentation deck with scientific claims verified against actual data, appropriate competitive positioning, and design system that communicated organizational competence. Work included correcting scientific language for regulatory compliance, preserving original data authenticity, and restructuring narrative flow for BD&L audience evaluation criteria.
Common Questions
What's different about working with Alacrita on this?
+We specialize in early-stage biotech fundraising and partnership preparation. This focus, combined with substantial in-house expertise and access to 350+ consultants across 29 functional disciplines, 22 disease areas, and 18 product modalities, ensures each project includes domain experts with matching technical and scientific backgrounds. When your audience includes sophisticated evaluators who know your therapeutic area, the materials must be handled by people who understand both the science and the business context.
How do you ensure scientific accuracy in these materials?
+Every claim must match your actual data and be positioned appropriately for your development stage. Our review process includes subject matter experts with direct experience in relevant therapeutic areas who understand both regulatory requirements and what sophisticated audiences expect. This ensures materials where scientific precision takes precedence over marketing impact.
What materials do I need before a Series A?
+At minimum: a pitch deck that frames the opportunity clearly and a website that holds up when investors check you out. Beyond that, an executive summary or one-pager for follow-up, and consistent messaging your team can deploy in conversations. The specifics depend on your stage, competitive situation, and how much is already in place.
What can I say publicly about my drug before FDA approval?
+FDA has clear expectations here. You can discuss the science, mechanism, and development pathway. You can reference published data and clinical trial designs. What you can't do is make efficacy or safety claims that go beyond your evidence, or position an investigational product as if it were approved. Getting this right is part of the work - ensuring messaging is compelling without crossing regulatory lines.
Do you work with preclinical companies or only clinical-stage?
+Both. The materials and positioning look different at each stage, but the need is the same: a clear, credible story for the audience evaluating you. Preclinical companies often need to emphasize the science, the team's track record, and the development path. Clinical-stage companies can point to data but need to frame it appropriately for where they are in the process.
How long does a project like this take?
+We can typically move fast when timing is tight for an upcoming investor meeting or partnership discussion. The overall timeline depends on scope, how much exists already, and how quickly feedback cycles move.
How does pricing work?
+Projects are scoped with fixed fees upfront or an estimate on hours, depending on the work. Reach out to discuss your specific needs and timeline.
We're already working with Alacrita on strategy. How does this connect?
+Directly. When Alacrita is already involved in development strategy, regulatory planning, or business development work, the story and positioning are understood. Communications work builds on that foundation, more efficient and more consistent than starting from scratch with an outside resource.
Get in Touch
Reach out to discuss timing and scope.