The benefits of being boring in biotech

Raising money in biotech often means selling investors on a dream without tipping the scale toward magical thinking. That’s why Nathaniel David, founder of the aging-focused Unity Biotechnology, is embracing the quotidian side of drug development.

The idea of prolonging life — or, as Unity aims to do, extending the period in which people are healthy — has become a mockable conceit in Silicon Valley, whether the real one or the HBO version. So to avoid getting lumped in with what he called the “weirdos” of the anti-aging world, David sticks to the boring stuff.

“We have been extremely intentional in affiliating ourselves with a very conventional, buttoned-up pharma, big biotech sort of zeitgeist,” David said. “Because there are all sorts of other odd people in the aging space. If you’re not intentional about not affiliating with them, you wind up being accidentally affiliated with them.”

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