Explore our free courses and learning materials
Our goal is to share practical and theoretical concepts fundamental to the biotech industry that aren't being presented anywhere else. To that end, RA Capital has developed a variety of short, free, self-guided online learning modules. We’re adding more all the time.
Register with your email address to access this resource. We'll also notify you of new additions. (Opt out any time.)
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This foundational course introduces learners to the biotech social contract, M&A game theory, and NPV modeling using in-depth examples.
32 Lessons Free -
Our Finance Master Class was specifically designed as an advanced course for finance professionals in biotech hoping to level up in their careers. Learn value creation, financing strategy, and communication skills through an investor's lens.
16 Lessons Free -
How do our health technology assessment institutions value drugs - and how should they? Learn why we should prioritize generalized cost-effectiveness analysis (GCEA) over the outdated math used by ICER, NICE, and their peers.
5 Lessons Free -
Proper insurance with low OOP costs is what makes anything in healthcare affordable. Investing new drugs that go generic without undue delay is how America saves lives and saves money.
10 Lessons Free -
Drug price controls fail to solve affordability. And by killing the innovation conversation, they increase spending on healthcare in the long run. It's like putting off getting a mortgage to save money, but in the meantime your rent keeps rising.
7 Lessons Free -
Learn how public funding, incentives, and private funding function together to enable all of us to get what we want: new medicines.
4 Lessons Free -
RA Capital’s SABER is a detailed compendium of best practices drawn from the experiences of seasoned board members. In-depth examples (complete with data!) demonstrate how to take the principles in this guide from your laptop to the boardroom.
19 Lessons Free -
What we call "Series I" IPO principles are increasingly recognized as common sense and in the best interest of any strong company going public. Review our roadmap for running a rigorous price discovery and allocation process for yourself.
12 Lessons Free -
If you are looking forward to a career in biotech, you are an investor. Time is money, you are investing your time in a company, and they will pay you in both cash and equity. Learn what equity is and how to value competing offers.
7 Lessons Free -
What's the big deal about cutting the top-selling drugs down to just being reasonably profitable?
2 Lessons Free -
Join Peter Kolchinsky, Tess Cameron, and Dan Lepanto (Senior Managing Director, SVB Securities) for a candid discussion on the array of tools a biotech board can employ in the midst of the current market downturn (June 2022).
1 Lessons Free -
Experts from the innovator, investor, and health plan communities provide analysis for biotech leaders on the impacts of new IRA legislation -- and propose fixes to make it better for patients and innovators.
6 Lessons Free
We've grouped some courses into Tracks to help you focus on what may be more relevant.
(Tracks have some core lessons in common.)
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For scientists and industry employees who want to see the bigger picture.
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For those who have not worked in the biotech industry, these are great introductory lessons.
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For patients and those that must deal with the healthcare system, but don't know where to start going about understanding it.
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Sign up for all of our courses at once, including our most advanced.
Peter Kolchinsky
Peter Kolchinsky is a founder and Managing Partner at RA Capital Management and author of The Great American Drug Deal. Peter is active in both public and private investments in companies developing drugs, medical devices, diagnostics, and research tools and serves on the boards of publicly- and privately-held life science companies. Peter founded and serves as a Director of No Patient Left Behind, a non-profit advocate for healthcare reforms that would make today's medicines affordable to patients and promote the innovation that gives all of us hope for tomorrow. He holds a BA from Cornell University and a PhD in Virology from Harvard University.
Tess Cameron
Tess Cameron is a Principal, Strategic Finance at RA Capital Management. Tess’s primary responsibility is to partner with our portfolio companies as a strategic finance advisor. Tess comes to RA from Foghorn Therapeutics, where she was Head of Finance. Prior to Foghorn, Tess held finance leadership roles at Wave Life Sciences, where she was responsible for FP&A and corporate finance, and Biogen, where she was the finance lead for the CMO and the neurodegeneration portfolio. Prior to joining biotech/pharma, she was a specialist in the corporate finance team at McKinsey &Co, focused on corporate transactions.
Jessica Sagers
Jessica Sagers is Head of Engagement at RA Capital Management. Jess's primary responsibility is to direct a concerted effort to analyze, design, and shape internal and external narratives. She works with RA’s newcos to develop optimal pitch decks and public messaging, authors articles, and runs the firm’s internal and external business courses. Jessica manages RA's Innovator Resources and co-founded RApport, our biotech communications platform. She is on the Steering Committee for No Patient Left Behind, a non-profit focused on reforming American healthcare to make medicines affordable to patients and promote innovation.
Tom Culman
As Engagement Associate at RA Capital Management, Thomas Culman leverages qualitative and quantitative skills to manage a variety of educational, outreach, and advocacy-oriented projects. Prior to this role, Tom conducted research and analysis for competitive landscapes of drugs and medical devices across a range of disease indications and capabilities as a Senior Research Assistant. Tom holds a BS in Health Sciences with a minor in Journalism from Northeastern University. He worked previously as a Patient Coordinator at Massachusetts General Hospital.
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RA Capital's Perpectives
As scientists, we at RA Capital are wired with a passion for learning and research. We bring that to our work as biotech investors and company builders. This growing collection of writings, together with our other outreach efforts, represents our contribution to the discourse. We hope you find them useful.
RApport
An online communications hub for members of the biotech community to share their ideas, problems, and solutions. Founded and run by employees of RA Capital, RApport is a place to gather insight and opinions from across the industry.
No Patient Left Behind
No one should go broke, skip their medications, or even die because they can't pay their out-of-pocket costs or afford health insurance in the first place. No Patient Left Behind's goal is to make sure that everyone in America has affordable healthcare they can actually use and guarantee that our country continues to invest in new medicines that will help patients now and in the future.
No Patient Left Behind
An NPLB Animation: Fighting for Affordable Medicines & Encouraging Innovation
Our course materials align with NPLB's principles that we can pay to develop cutting-edge medicines and make them affordable to patients.
Scientists create a powerful new medicine in the lab. The FDA approves it. Your doctor prescribes it to treat a condition that’s been causing you pain for years. But your insurance company decides it knows better, and denies you the drug. Or allows it but only if you pay a high copay to meet your even higher annual deductible.
No Patient Left Behind, a new nonprofit, is dedicated to making medicines affordable for all Americans – while encouraging the innovation that makes those medicines possible.
Please join us in our efforts, www.nopatientleftbehind.org
Phil J.
"A fantastic course for those venturing into the world of biotech; a highly stimulating experience that will expand, and might even change, how you think about the biotech industry. Thoroughly recommended for all aspiring entrepreneurs."
Lane
"A great primer for those new to the industry and important perspective veterans working within it."
Tobias K.
"Having worked on gene therapies for many years as a grad student at MIT, I really wish that this course had been part of our core curriculum at the beginning - it would have provided a tremendously valuable perspective for our experiments and strategic planning."
Ben K.
"If you're wondering about the 'why' behind biotech headlines, this course explains it"
Alex Wang
"There is so much useful material in the class that you will come away both overwhelmed and highly appreciative of the experience."
Anonymous Student
"To scientists relatively new to biotech - you will not view your work or career the same after this course."
Yi-Li Min
"A mind-blowing educational experience. The course aligns business, finance, policy and social concepts that build the biotech ecosystem. Highly recommended, come see it yourself!"
Amanda X. Chen
"An amazing opportunity to build an understanding of every player in the biotech industry. I've previously taken other biotech/start-up flavored courses, all of which have focused mostly on helping academics with IP generation and pitch design. RA Capital's course is unique and dives deep into incentives that drive the behavior of various stakeholders, and sheds a light on the investor's perspective in biotech. I highly recommend this course to anyone to would like to properly and thoroughly grasp the biotech ecosystem."
David Migl
“This course is the ‘Freakonomics’ of the biotech industry– a unique insider’s perspective on investing, how common conventions create misaligned incentives, and how investors and executives can buck tradition to create better outcomes for all stakeholders. I highly recommend the course to anyone in the biotech ecosystem.”
Soufiane Aboulhouda
“They say what they’ll do, and they’ll do what they say. Through data-driven insights, seminal case studies, and Peter’s deep memory bank, this short but intensive course provides a framework for understanding complex and fundamental topics in biotech. You won’t get this educational experience anywhere else.”