Experience · Pharma / Life Sciences

Where the bench, the clinic, and the P&L line up.

Nextwave X Partners brings pharma-grade operating experience to venture. Our team ran commercialization inside Eli Lilly on Prozac, launched Zyvox at Pharmacia-Upjohn, ran data strategy inside Genentech, and now leads 1:8 Ventures — alongside a GU oncologist who directed the development of abiraterone (Zytiga) and served as CEO of the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

Why now

Patent cliffs are back.

Big pharma is walking into the largest LOE wave in a generation. The same operating playbook that navigated the Prozac cliff applies again — and the strategic buyers know it.

AI is compressing the discovery-to-clinic loop.

The companies that combine wet lab, computational, and operator DNA are the ones that make it through the FDA gauntlet. We invest at the intersection.

Life-sciences portfolio→

Cancer venture has an operator problem.

Most oncology funds are financial. 1:8 Ventures is built around the operators who actually got prostate-cancer drugs approved and delivered.

Our position

Two vehicles. Pharma-grade operating discipline in every position.

Cancer platform · Operator-led

1:8 Ventures

Prostate-cancer venture platform led by a GU oncologist who directed the abiraterone development program and served as CEO of the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Peer-reviewed publications: 240+. The one venture platform where the operator wrote the standard of care.

Platform detail→

NXP

Active · Life-sciences AI

NXP direct + Foundry

Direct positions and Foundry builds across life-sciences AI, in silico trials, and health data infrastructure. VeriSIM Life anchors the AI-native side of the portfolio.

Active positions→

FoF

Fund-of-funds positions

Manna Tree and specialist health GPs.

LP positions across managers anchoring the health, biotech, and life-sciences categories alongside the direct portfolio.

See all positions→

Track record

The operating record behind every position.

The pharma track record isn’t a portfolio — it’s an operating career. Combined with today’s life-sciences AI portfolio (VeriSIM Life, health-data platforms, computational drug discovery), the position spans decades of strategic execution.

Anchor story · Operating record

Eli Lilly — Prozac through the patent cliff.

Team leadership through one of the largest commercialization and LOE navigation programs in pharma history. The playbook the industry is running again this cycle.

Anchor story · Operating record

Pharmacia-Upjohn — Zyvox launch.

Category-defining launch of the first oxazolidinone antibiotic. Featured in the NXP Innovators Showcase as the model for how commercialization actually gets done.

Anchor story · Platform led by the operator

1:8 Ventures — the abiraterone team.

The venture platform led by a GU oncologist who directed the pivotal abiraterone development program and ran the Prostate Cancer Foundation. The rarest kind of operator-led fund.

See the full life-sciences portfolio→

Inside the operator

Where our team has run life-sciences programs.

The strategic and commercial experience underneath the positions above — inside the biggest names in pharma and biotech.

Prozac
commercialization

Zyvox
launch

Data strategy
life-sciences ops

Strategic
engagement

Active & next

What we’re building right now.

Live intelligence

1:8 Ventures — prostate cancer platform.

The venture platform for prostate cancer. Led by an operator who wrote the pivotal trials and ran the foundation. Currently in formation.

Learn more→

Current build

ClinicalAF.

A CRO-style validation infrastructure for the categories where the science has always been thinner than the marketing — food, ag, and the wellness-adjacent layer of health.

clinicalaf.io↗

Field notes

NXP Innovators Showcase.

Deep-dive on Zyvox and the Pharmacia-Upjohn commercialization model — the operating template our life-sciences work still runs on.

Read the showcase→

Engage

Get in on the life-sciences platform.

LP positions into 1:8 Ventures for institutions and families with an oncology thesis. Strategic engagement for pharma innovation groups navigating LOE and post-LOE portfolio strategy. Operating collaboration on life-sciences AI plays where the pharma-grade playbook actually matters. Start the conversation→