Vikas Goyal is a Venture Partner at the healthcare venture capital firm, Longwood Fund. Vikas has over 20 years of experience in the biotech industry, including in corporate strategy, capital formation, corporate partnerships, and mergers and acquisitions for early-stage therapeutics companies. Vikas earned an MBA in Health Care Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an A.B. in Neurobiology from Harvard College. He is a board member of the Wharton Health Care Alumni Association.

Vikas Goyal, Venture Partner at Longwood Fund

The Pulse: Can you tell me about your career journey and how you ended up at the Longwood Fund?

Vikas Goyal: I’ve always been interested in science. Both my parents were physicians, so I grew up surrounded by medical journals, and biology was something that just made sense to me. I started working in labs during high school and continued throughout college. After college, I transitioned to the business side of science, joining McKinsey as a consultant. There, I worked with large pharma companies and learned about the biotech industry for the first time. That exposure made me realize I wanted to work in biotech.

In 2003, I started looking for a job in Boston and landed at a small biotech company called Extera Partners in 2004. That role gave me my first real look at the challenges of building innovative products for people with serious illnesses. I learned a lot about business development, transactions, and fundraising. Both of Extera’s founders had MBAs, and after five years, I decided business school was the right next step for me.

A Wharton alum encouraged me to meet June Kinney, who runs the Wharton Health Care Program. She understood my background and career goals, and with her guidance, I joined the program. During my time at Wharton, I interned at SR One, the corporate venture fund of GlaxoSmithKline, and joined them full-time after graduating. At SR One, I gained more experience in biotech venture capital, focusing on building and financing companies, forming corporate partnerships, and navigating the challenges of growing startups.

After 10 years at SR One, one of my portfolio companies, Pandion Therapeutics, needed help with business development. I had been on the board for a few years and really liked the company, so in 2019, I joined the management team. Over the next two years, we closed a partnership with Astellas, advanced our lead program into the clinic, and built a strong relationship with Merck, which acquired Pandion in 2021.

After Pandion, I wanted to figure out my next move. I enjoyed both working in biotech companies and investing. I decided to pursue the harder path: biotech investing. I spent a couple of years trying to build my own venture capital fund, but it proved incredibly challenging, and I wasn’t successful. Then, in the summer of 2024, I joined Longwood Fund, a biotech investing group founded 15 years ago by a team of experienced investors and entrepreneurs.

The Pulse: Why do you find biotech investing so challenging?

VG: Biotech investing is difficult because of the long timelines and the inherent uncertainty. As an investor in early-stage companies, your most significant moment of influence comes when you make that initial investment. But you’re making that decision based on limited information, and it could be three to seven years before you know if it was the right call.

In private markets, the pace is slower, and you’re exposed to fewer companies compared to public markets. This makes learning a slower process. On top of that, being a biotech investor isn’t just about allocating capital—it’s about helping build the companies you invest in. You’re involved in shaping strategy, making key decisions, and supporting their growth. It’s a complex balance between decision-making and active engagement, which makes it both rewarding and challenging.

The Pulse: What is Longwood Fund’s investment strategy?

VG: Longwood Fund combines company creation with traditional venture investing. We focus on early-stage biotech, investing in projects ranging from ideas still on paper to companies with early clinical data. We support this strategy with two separate funds tailored to these different stages.

We define early-stage broadly, covering everything from drug discovery concepts to early clinical development. Our expertise lies in helping private companies during the most formative stages of their development, which is where we can add the most value.

The Pulse: Why focus on private companies instead of public markets?

VG: Our team prefers working at the earliest stages of a company’s life, where hands-on involvement can have the greatest impact. Everyone at Longwood has experience as an executive, entrepreneur, or operator in biotech. Many of us have built companies from scratch. This operational expertise is most useful in private companies, where the focus is on setting up a strong foundation.

The Pulse: The 2025 conference theme is “Building Lasting Healthcare Transformation Beyond Disruption.” How does your work fit into that vision?

VG: What I love about biotech is that the medicines we create can have a lasting impact. Once a medicine is proven effective, it becomes part of the healthcare system until something better comes along. Unlike other parts of healthcare—like infrastructure or surgical techniques, which may become obsolete—medicines endure because they consistently provide value.

Biotech is inherently disruptive because we’re always trying to improve. A new therapy replaces an older one, and the cycle continues. This process drives lasting transformation, as the innovations we develop today will continue to benefit patients for decades to come.

The Pulse: There’s increasing debate around drug pricing in the U.S. How do you view these discussions?

VG: I have mixed feelings. On one hand, lower prices mean more people can access the medicines we develop, which is incredibly rewarding. On the other hand, we need to generate financial returns to fund future innovation. Without those returns, the pipeline for new medicines would dry up.

Globally, drug prices often correlate with overall healthcare costs, including physician salaries and infrastructure. As populations age, managing these costs becomes harder, so I think some changes are inevitable. From an early-stage investor’s perspective, pricing reform is just one of many risks we consider. Ultimately, medicines that deliver real value will continue to succeed, as their ability to improve lives drives widespread adoption.

The Pulse: How do you see artificial intelligence impacting drug development?

VG: AI has been part of drug discovery for years, though we used to call it computational chemistry or structure-based drug design. My first investment, Nimbus Therapeutics, used these tools back in 2011. At the time, we had to build specialized infrastructure to support these models. Today, AI tools are much more accessible, which is accelerating innovation across the industry.

The current bottleneck isn’t the technology—it’s data. Training AI systems requires high-quality, well-organized data. The most successful companies are those that combine computational expertise with strong biology and chemistry foundations. They run experiments, analyze the results, and use that data to refine their drug discovery processes. AI is now a standard part of drug development, and the focus has shifted from whether to use it, to how to use it most effectively.

The Pulse: What advice would you give people interested in biotech venture capital? Do you need a biomedical background to succeed?

VG: You absolutely don’t need a biomedical background. I’m not a scientist—I haven’t worked in a lab since college. What matters is building the right skills and gaining relevant experience.

First, recognize that the current macroeconomic environment is tough for startups. This isn’t personal; it’s a reflection of broader economic trends. Second, venture capital, especially in biotech, often involves operational work. Roles in business development, R&D strategy, or even public investing can provide valuable skills.

Finally, be open to unexpected opportunities. My venture capital career began with an internship at SR One that I hadn’t planned for. Flexibility and a willingness to learn are essential for success in this field.

Interviewed by Henri Matilla, December 13, 2024.