Medsider: Learn from Medtech and Healthtech Founders and CEOs - The Essentials of Building the Right Foundation: Interview with Neuro42 Co-founder Abhita Batra

Episode Date: February 22, 2024

In this episode of Medsider Radio, we sat down with Abhita Batra, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Neuro42. The company recently received 510(k) clearance for its portable head and brain MRI system, which integrates MRI, AI, and robotics in one platform.Abhita holds a B.E. in Biotechnology from Panjab University, an M.S. in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania, and Executive MBAs from UCLA Anderson and the National University of Singapore. Before Neuro42, she started several companies and held a variety of roles in business development and strategic consulting with organizations such as Otomagnetics and Admac Oncology. Her expertise spans across oncology, biotech, and medical devices. In this interview, Abhita talks about her approach to building strategy at early-stage companies, the importance of a good team and thorough market analysis, and how to take a nuanced approach with regulatory bodies. Before we dive into the discussion, I wanted to mention a few things:First, if you’re into learning from medical device and health technology founders and CEOs, and want to know when new interviews are live, head over to Medsider.com and sign up for our free newsletter.Second, if you want to peek behind the curtain of the world's most successful startups, you should consider a Medsider premium membership. You’ll learn the strategies and tactics that founders and CEOs use to build and grow companies like Silk Road Medical, AliveCor, Shockwave Medical, and hundreds more!We recently introduced some fantastic additions exclusively for Medsider premium members, including playbooks, which are curated collections of our top Medsider interviews on key topics like capital fundraising and risk mitigation, and a curated investor database to help you discover your next medical device or health technology investor!In addition to the entire back catalog of Medsider interviews over the past decade, premium members also get a copy of every volume of Medsider Mentors at no additional cost, including the latest Medsider Mentors Volume V. If you’re interested, go to medsider.com/subscribe to learn more.Lastly, if you'd rather read than listen, here's a link to the full interview with Abhita Batra.

You have a lot of milestones, right, when you develop a product and it all starts with a good team. And, you know, they have to understand how startups work because startups are not like any other company. The challenges are different and the day-to-day tasks are different and the expectations are different. Welcome to MedSider, where you can learn from the brightest founders and CEOs in medical devices and and health technology. Join tens of thousands of ambitious doers as we unpack the insights, tactics, and secrets behind the most successful life science startups in the world. Now here's your host, Scott Nelson. Hey everyone, it's Scott. In this episode of Medsider, I sat down with Abita Batra. With expertise in oncology, biotech and medical devices, Abita co-founded and currently lead strategy at

Neuro42, a startup developing an innovative MRI platform. Abita holds a master's degree in pharmaceutical biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania and executive MBAs from UCLA Anderson and the National University of Singapore. Before Neuro-42, she started several companies and held a variety of roles in business development and strategic consulting with organizations such as automagnetics and ad-mac oncology. Here for you the key things that we discussed in this conversation. First, at the outside of your startup, your first two concerns should be building a knowledgeable and adaptable team and conducting a thorough market analysis to pinpoint the exact gap you need to fill. Second, when it comes to navigating the regulatory landscape, you should meticulously plan your path,

realistically predict the corresponding timelines, and allow your team enough room to respond to FDA's requests while ensuring your course aligns with fundraising milestones. Third, every stage of your company requires a different approach to fundraising. The amount you're raising, the promises you're making, and the proof you need to show all vary. But in essence, the key is to present a compelling case and communicate it clearly to potential investors and partners. All right, before we jump into this episode, I wanted to let you know that the latest edition of Medsider Mentors is now live. We just published Volume 5, which summarizes the key learnings from the most popular Medsider interviews over the last several months with incredible entrepreneurs like Gabriel Jones, CEO of Proprio, Kirsten Carol, CEO of Can Do Health, Dr. David Alpert, founder of AliveCorp, Greg Bowlington, CEO of Magnolia Medical, and other leaders of some of the hottest startups in our space.

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of interviews dating back to 2010. You'll also be able to see all of our playbooks, which are handpicked collections of the most insightful interviews with the brightest founders and CEOs that join our program. Whether you're looking to master capital fundraising, navigate early stage development, tackle regulatory challenges, understand reimbursement or positioning your venture for a meaningful exit, Medsider playbooks have you covered. And last, considering that fundraising can be one of the most daunting tasks for any startup, we created a meticulous database of investors right at your fingertips. Explore a wealth of VC funds, private equity firms, angel groups, and more, all eager to invest in medical device and health technology startups. Access to this database is a premium

member exclusive, so don't miss out. Learn more about MedSider mentors and our premium memberships by visiting Medsider Radio.com forward slash mentors. All right, without further ado, let's jump into the interview. All right, Abida, welcome to Medsider Radio. Appreciate you coming on the program. Thank you, Scott. I'm really honored to be here. I appreciate you guys talking about healthcare and new companies and excited to be a part of it. Yeah, yeah, definitely enjoy conversations like these that are highly focused on kind of fast-moving startups like Neuro42. So with that said, I recorded a very condensed version of your bio kind of at the outset of this episode. But let's start there. You've got a really impressive background across both biotech and med tech. So if you can give us sort of an elevator pitch for your professional career leading up to,

you know, co-founding Neuro42 and kind of serving as the CSO, that would be great. Yeah. I would define myself as an entrepreneur who loves to invest in healthcare startups in whichever form and way, as an advisor investor or as an entrepreneur getting involved operationally or strategically. this has been something which has been my passion. I'd love to be involved in something that makes a change in someone's life. If we can save one life which, you know, through our companies, we try and create products, which create an impact in not only saving lives, but also having a betterment in some

form and way. That's what I enjoy the most. Got it. And you've been at the company since, I think it looks like. mid-2020, so about three and a half years or so. Give us a sense for kind of what you're working on, sort of the core foundational technology. And since you founded the company, you know, if you can kind of weave in sort of the origin story, I think that would be interesting. Yeah. Yeah, it's been three years since we founded the company. The company was

founded when we licensed the technology from Mass General Hospital. It is an innovative technology because what we are trying to do is very interesting where we are basically scanning patients at low field for any sort of brain injury and we are developing an interventional product that would integrate the use of MRI, AI and robotics. But it all started with the technology at MGH. Then we brought it out, made it our own. And of course we have a robot that we licensed from John Hopkins, which is what we would be integrating in our interventional product. The exciting part, of course, is that the product will change the landscape in operating rooms, and that would allow for better treatment experience and diagnostic experience for patient and

physician. Got it. And I'm going to double click on this a little bit because I'm looking at your website right now, which is neuro42.AI. So neuro the number four, the number two, dot AI. If you're listening to this show and don't get to the full write-up on MedSider, that's the link to Neuro42 and what Abbott and the team are working on.

But so if I understand this, right, you've got a robot, right, that you're licensing from John Hopkins, the foundation of technology you brought out of, you said Mass General, I believe. Yeah, we licensed the technology for MRI from Mass General Hospital and we licensed the technology for robot from John Hopkins. If we were to fast forward two, three, four years, this technology is being utilized in the hospital setting?

Is it in the OR? Is it in the kind of the interventional suite somewhere in the hospital? Give us a sense for kind of what the workflow or what the use case would be. Yeah. So the diagnostic imager that we are developing is going to be placed in stroke centers, urgent cares, clinical settings, or I should say any office-based settings, that's where we are looking at an ambulatory care. The interventional product is going to go into ICU's ORs. And of course, you know, we want to integrate and integrate it with the workflow of neurosurgeon who's doing surgeries on day to day.

we're looking at targeting DBS, Shunt Replacement, Biopsies, under guidance, with interventional MRI. Okay, very good. I think it helps set the stage maybe for the rest of the discussion. But before we get, we kind of go back in time and learn a little bit more about kind of your journey with various startups, including Neuro42. Give us a, give us an overview of kind of where the company is at currently. You know, we, you just touched on the fact that you've been working on. for about three years or so, but where are you at in terms of the stage, preclin versus clinical, Rayclin, et cetera?

We do have a clinical prototype, and we expect to work with FDA and get the approval next year. Next year, okay, and we're recording this in late 2023, so it looks like sometime in 2024 you'll be embarking on clinical studies. So we expect to get the FDA approval next year. Oh, okay, FGA approval next year. Okay, got it. Very good. Okay. All right, sounds good. Well, let's, let's use the next, you know, 20, 25 minutes or so to kind of go back in time, right? And learn, I mean, you've been involved in so many different startups, right, throughout your professional career, neural 42 being obviously the most, the most recent one. And would love to kind of get your insights, right? Your advice for other, other, you know, med tech and life science entrepreneurs that are working on their own, on their own ventures. And so the first, question I like to kind of start out with is early stage development. And, you know, this is often so challenging, right, because most founders and CEOs of early stage life science companies, you know, have have a fairly limited amount of capital to work with. But, you know, you need to kind of move quickly

and get to sort of the next, the next iteration of your product to further de-risk the company for, you know, for future investment. So, you know, when you think about kind of that process, that, that early stage sort of iteration, what do you think is most important for entrepreneurs to really understand or to get right when they're trying to move quickly with limited capital? I think the most important thing is finding the right people and building a good team. And then, of course, having a good investor base that really helps. That's how you start. And of course, you have a lot of milestones, right, when you develop a product. And it also, it also, starts with a good team. And, you know, they have to understand how startups work because

startups are not like any other company. The challenges are different and the day-to-day tasks are different and the expectations are different. So that's why I think the core is a good team. If they understand what's coming their way, you know, then you're on the right path. Yeah, that's a really good point. And there is such a stark difference, right? in terms of someone that's spent most of their career inside a mid or large cap, you know, strategic company versus those that I have a little bit of, sort of experience under the belt at a startup. Because it is vastly different.

And until you do it, I don't think, I think most people don't fully understand kind of the rigor, right, and the speed at which you need to make decisions. So really good point. When you think about all of the entrepreneurs that you've either been around or worked with across your career. Are there a couple common mistakes that you often see in these early stages? Yeah, I think if you don't have the right team, that's a big failure in itself right there.

But people forget that when we start a company, you have to have a good market analysis done, right, to understand if there is a gap that they are trying to bridge. does it even exist? So that's something that's so important. Once you know there is a gap and that's the gap you're trying to bridge, then you can create a good pathway for the product, development,

and of course, getting through regulatory and building a plan to get the approval and commercialize it. All that comes next. So every stage has a challenge, but you have to understand the challenges very well. So as I said earlier, the team is so important. Yeah, there's no doubt.

And that market gap that you mentioned, I'm sure you've been around a fair number of, whether it's an engineer or a clinician that has a really great idea, right? I mean, it is a compelling idea. But the need that they're solving for just doesn't represent either a significant enough gap or a significant enough market. Maybe oftentimes they're kind of one on the same. And that's so crucial because in the world of life sciences, these startups,

I mean, every startup is so capital intensive. And in order to convince investors to not only invest in maybe the current stage, but also future rounds of fundraising, the valuation needs to be there. Right. So they can get a return on their money. And that's a really big thing that I think a lot of folks that haven't been around

startups just don't quite understand is that you may have a really cool idea. and it may be even needed, right? But if the market just isn't big enough, it's going to be a long slug. And it may not be a venture type of company. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Because if there is no ROI and people don't see how they're going to make money,

after all, it's a business. It is. It is. Yeah. And maybe the take home lesson here, you know, for those listening that, you know, are in this early stage or thinking about making the leap to a start? startup, just understanding that kind of that core kind of fundamental idea that your investors are, that they have a business model, right? And they need to return capital to their LPs. And so

just thinking about those stages and what it takes to get through each and sort of every, every stage is really crucial. And again, the market needs to be big enough. So let's transition a little bit, Abida, to kind of the topic of kind of regulatory and clinical. And you just mentioned neuro-42 is kind of gearing up for FDA approval next year. And this topic can be, you know, really daunting, really challenging, I think, for any life science entrepreneur, because it's, it's fairly subjective, even if there's, you know, there's guidelines in place can be fairly nuanced and subjective. And it's just a big lift across the board, right? It's such a big endeavor to kind of navigate the regulatory landscape and, you know, ensure that you're running

clinical studies that kind of ladder up to that pathway. So when you think about this topic and general. Are there any lessons that you've, you know, you've really picked up on over the years from other startups that you've incorporated into Neuro 42 over the past, you know, a couple of years? Yeah, I think, so this is not the first time we are doing this, right? We have taken a lot of products through approval processes and commercialized quite a few products. So knowing that, we've done it before. We've dealt with the FDA. I think that does bring some sort of comfort. But then again, as I said, the regulatory landscape is evolving. And with every product, there are some new things that come your way.

But having that experience does help. And we do have a team who has a bandwidth of experience along with me on getting through the regulatory process. So that does make it a lot, I would say, easier. And it's valuable. It's quite a value add to the team. Got it. And I guess maybe I'll ask a similar question as I did with respect to kind of early stage development.

When you work with other startup entrepreneurs, kind of regardless of where they're at with their current venture, do you see some common mistakes that come up when they're mapping out or putting it together their clinical and regulatory roadmaps? Yeah, I think you have to estimate. the right timeline for submissions and then you have to understand that you're giving yourself enough time to answer the questions from FDA because that's something that needs to be thought through very well before even starting out the company right you need to have that pathway planned out on how you're going to move forward on the regulatory clinical pathway so

if that is something that can be done before with the regulatory consultants, advisors that you have on board, you know, that does help. The challenge that typically everyone has is if you don't have the right advice then or experience yourself, then, you know, it doesn't help. Sometimes you have to have that expertise, either yourself or from outside. But yeah, that's very important. No doubt. And it's such a, that timeline, right, that you mentioned. It's such a crucial aspect to fundraising, right?

I mean, obviously, you need to have that plan in place that's fairly well-vetted just in order to effectively operate and execute against your goals and milestones. But if that's not clearly laid out to potential investors during a fundraise, that, you know, you're not going to make it very far, right? you know that that's such a that's such a key aspect uh that's one thing in a startup right i mean when when you put the milestones in you would want to achieve those milestones and when you have a regulatory pathway um those are a big part of your milestones yeah no no doubt no doubt and in in order to you know if you if you're if you're raising capital if you're raising say 10 million

dollars in capital for rounding purposes you need to effectively articulate right how you're going to allocate, you know, those funds. And so much of it, so much of it needs to point to, you know, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, has a kind of kind of kind of, kind of, pathway and roadmap that you develop it needs to be vetted, right? To your point about working, you know, bringing alongside some, uh, some sophisticated, uh, you know, council to help help, help make sure that, that, um, that, that, that plan is, you know, has a fair amount of meat on the bone, right? There's some substance to it. Um, um, so, so, so with that said, I want, I want to

talk to you a little bit about sort of the impressive roster of institutions or organizations that you've worked with over the years. And even more specifically to Neuro42, you know, you mentioned previously that you spun out the kind of the underlying technology out of Mass General. You're licensing the robot from, what was it? Was it St. What did you say, St. John's, Tom? I can't remember exactly. What institution are you licensing the robot from? John's Hopkins. Oh, John's Hopkins. I'm sorry. And so. So, you know, I think most entrepreneurs that are listening to this would be like, those names sound really impressive.

I'm familiar with all those organizations. I would have no idea how to effectively partner or collaborate. It seems like a very matrix sort of environment. Where do I even start? Right. So if you, like, in your kind of years of experience working with larger organizations, establishing these types of partnerships, spitting out technology, et cetera, you know, what, what, you know, are there a couple things that you would sort of

a couple pieces of advice, you know, that you would offer up to other founders and see those that are trying to, trying to navigate these waters. Yeah, I mean. Hey there, it's Scott. And thanks for listening in so far. The rest of this conversation is only available via our private podcast for MedSider Premium members. If you're not a premium member yet, you should definitely consider signing up.

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