What Does It Take to Build a Truly Great Biotech?
2026-09-21For many who follow global biopharmaceutical innovation, Capstan Therapeutics (“Capstan”) is already a familiar name.
Focused on in vivo CAR-T technology, the company went from founding to an acquisition valued at up to US$2.1 billion in just a few years, becoming one of the most closely watched stories in the global cell therapy sector in recent years.
Yet beyond the transaction itself lies a more important question for the industry: how does a biotech operating at the frontier of science navigate uncertainty, make strategic choices, assemble the right resources, plan for clinical development, and ultimately grow into an innovative asset with global competitiveness?
On April 27, at “A Dialogue with RA Capital: Innovation Paradigms and Cross-Border Growth,” co-hosted by RA Capital, Biosparc and True Light, Laura Shawver, Investment Partner at RA Capital’s Raven platform and former President and CEO of Capstan Therapeutics, visited Suzhou for the first time.
In her first systematic sharing with Chinese biotech innovators and entrepreneurs, Laura reflected on Capstan’s journey and discussed RA Capital’s Company Building approach to turning frontier science into compelling biotech companies and assets.
Rather than focusing on a single technological breakthrough or financing milestone, Laura sought to address a question that virtually every biotech founder must confront:
What does it take to build a truly great biotech?
Entrepreneurship Is About Making Choices amid Uncertainty
When Laura looked back on Capstan’s development, she did not begin with the autoimmune programs for which the company is now widely known. Instead, she started with several major strategic shifts that shaped the company’s trajectory.
What many may not know is that Capstan did not begin as a company focused on autoimmune disease. Its earliest scientific foundation was rooted in fibrosis research. The company later shifted its attention to oncology. Several years later, as the science evolved and clinical opportunities changed, the team reassessed the long-term potential of different disease areas and ultimately decided to focus on autoimmune diseases.
Laura did not describe these changes as “trial and error.”
In her view, this is simply the reality of building a platform biotech.
A platform technology often has multiple potential applications. The real challenge is not proving that the platform can do many things, but continuously determining which opportunity is most worth pursuing at each stage of the company’s development.
Advances in science, changes in capital markets and evolving clinical needs can all reshape a company’s priorities. Strong entrepreneurial teams must be able to continuously reallocate resources in response to the external environment, rather than remain constrained by their original assumptions.
For platform companies, the real competitive advantage does not come from having more possibilities, but from the ability to continuously focus on the opportunities with the greatest potential value.
Clinical Thinking Should Start on Day One of R&D
During the panel discussion, Laura shared a point that resonated strongly with many founders in the room:
“It’s never too early to think about the clinical development plan.”
In her view, clinical development should never be something a company begins to consider only after preclinical research is complete.
For an innovative drug company, even when clinical entry is still two or three years away, the team should already be thinking about the clinical questions it ultimately wants to answer, the patient population it intends to serve, and the key data that will be needed to demonstrate the product’s value.
Laura further explained that when Capstan decided to shift its focus toward autoimmune diseases, the team did not simply reconsider indication selection. It also adjusted the broader development strategy.
Different disease areas have different expectations around safety, efficacy and clinical benefit. As a result, the priorities of the R&D program also need to be redesigned around the future clinical context.
What Laura advocated was, in essence, a “work backwards from the clinic” approach to R&D.
The end goal of R&D is not simply to complete experiments. It is to answer the questions that will matter in the clinic.
The earlier a company develops a clinical mindset, the better it can avoid unnecessary use of resources and establish a clearer path for product development.
The Real Value of Data Is in Informing the Next Strategic Move
Throughout her presentation, Laura spent relatively little time on technical details. Instead, she repeatedly emphasized the role of data in company decision-making.
In her view, the purpose of each experiment and each round of research is not simply to validate a scientific hypothesis. More importantly, the data should help the team answer the next strategic question:
Should we continue investing? Should we move into the next stage of development? Do we have enough evidence to support the next financing round, partnership discussion or clinical development decision?
Data, therefore, is not the endpoint of R&D. It is a critical tool for continuously reducing uncertainty.
As Capstan advanced its programs, the company did not simply pursue more and more proof-of-concept experiments. Instead, it focused on generating the data needed at key decision points, allowing the program to be progressively de-risked while helping external stakeholders develop a clearer understanding of its value.
For an early-stage biotech, what matters is not simply having more data.
What matters is ensuring that every meaningful data readout helps the company move into its next stage of development.
The Core of BD Is Building Understanding, Not Rushing into a Deal
Laura also shared Capstan’s approach to business development.
As its programs progressed, the company began engaging with major global pharmaceutical companies at an early stage, regularly sharing development progress and key data so that potential industry partners could gradually build an understanding of the program’s long-term value.
Along the way, Capstan received multiple s of interest and entered into deeper business discussions with potential partners.
Even so, the team chose at the time to continue advancing the program independently rather than rush into licensing its most important assets.
For Laura, BD is not simply about closing a transaction.
More fundamentally, it is about continuously building market understanding of an asset’s value.
When more industry partners genuinely understand the long-term potential of a technology, the company gains more strategic options.
The strongest innovative assets do not attract attention because a company is eager to sell them. They attract global industry partners naturally as the company continues to create value.
Turning Experience into a Shared Capability for the Innovation Ecosystem
Toward the end of her presentation, Laura noted that if she were to start another biotech company today, she would make much more active use of China’s rapidly developing innovation ecosystem.
In the past, Capstan relied primarily on established global scientific, capital and industry networks to support its growth.
Today, however, China has developed extensive research capabilities, strong clinical resources, a sophisticated industry and supply chain, and an increasingly mature innovation ecosystem.
For Chinese biotech companies today, what matters more than replicating the path of any single company is understanding the thinking and company-building logic behind its success.
That is also where the greatest value of sharing global innovation experience lies—and an important reason why Biosparc continues to promote international exchange across the innovation ecosystem.
Going forward, Biosparc will continue to connect global innovation institutions, investors and industry partners, bringing more international practices and industry experience into the ecosystem.
By creating platforms for exchange and collaboration, Biosparc aims to enable more proven approaches and lessons to be shared across China’s innovation ecosystem—and to support innovators as they learn, connect and grow together.