Altitude Lab - Pharmaceutical and Strategic Industry Partners Research and Database Creation

Company Overview

Altitude Lab is one of the leading life science startup accelerators in the Intermountain West, co-founded by Recursion and the University of Utah in 2020. We help early-stage companies turn scientific ideas into fundable businesses by providing the resources and support founders need to build their companies, including lab and office space, hands-on coaching, industry and executive mentorship, and access to a national network of investors and strategic partners. We work with startups across therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices, digital health, and other life science technologies. Since our founding, Altitude Lab has supported 41 life science startups that have collectively raised more than $205 million in early-stage financing. Eighty-five percent of our companies have reached the seed financing milestone, with six advancing to the clinical stage and nine raising Series A or later financing. Our goal is to help build the next generation of life science companies while strengthening Utah’s growing life science ecosystem. By 2035, we aim to have launched 100 seed-financed life science companies in Utah.

Project Description

Students on this project will develop targeted databases of pharmaceutical and strategic industry partners that may be a strong fit for resident startups. The project will involve using PitchBook and publicly available information to research potential partners based on factors such as therapeutic area, technology type, development stage, partnership history, areas of strategic interest, and previous deals involving similar assets or technologies. The research will focus on identifying companies that have demonstrated interest in technologies, therapeutic areas, and partnership structures relevant to Altitude Lab startups. The research will then be organized into targeted partner lists based on how closely each company aligns with the technology, therapeutic focus, and stage of development of specific Altitude Lab startups. The goal is to move beyond a general list of pharmaceutical companies and create a practical resource that can be used to identify the most relevant potential partners for business development, licensing, co-development, and other strategic opportunities. The final deliverable will be a set of organized strategic partner databases, with key information captured for each potential partner, including relevant contacts and examples of comparable partnerships or transactions where available. These databases will become an ongoing resource for the Altitude Lab team and will be used to help resident and alumni companies identify, prioritize, and approach potential pharmaceutical and industry partners.