NLS asked Nina Rawal, Partner and Co-Head of Ventures at Trill Impact, about her perspective when it comes to financing and supporting rare disease companies.

As an investor, what’s your view on rare disease companies and their potential value?

“Rare disease is an area that has undergone a minor revolution in recent decades, going from being unattractive to being a cornerstone in big pharma’s commercial offering. This has been possible thanks to policy changes as well as venture capital investing heavily in the area, creating an attractive pipeline.”

Another lesson from the rare disease space is that there is an opportunity to break down large diseases into smaller, homogenous patient groups that are easier to target with effective drugs.”

“Another lesson from the rare disease space is that there is an opportunity to break down large diseases into smaller, homogenous patient groups that are easier to target with effective drugs. Looking ahead, I believe the rare disease success story can be applied in other underserved patient groups such as women’s health and antimicrobial resistance (AMR).”

What are some of your basic criteria for investing capital in a life science company? What factors do you consider to be especially important when it comes to rare disease companies?

“It all starts with addressing the needs of underserved patient groups, who for too long have suffered from limited treatment options. We look for science that holds the potential to significantly improve medical outcomes with differentiated products, commercial potential, and last but not least the quality of the team.”

In the rare disease space, we focus on companies targeting pediatrics, diseases with higher prevalence across low- and middle-income countries, women’s health, or AMR.”

“In the rare disease space, we focus on companies targeting pediatrics, diseases with higher prevalence across low- and middle-income countries, women’s health, or AMR.”

How can you/Trill Impact help rare disease companies?

“Beyond capital, we support portfolio companies with their clinical development and commercialization strategy. For example, in clinical-stage companies, we focus on broad ethnic representation in late-stage clinical trials and pricing outside high-income countries, as we believe these are key drivers for accelerating global market access.”

Trill Impact is a recently founded impact house with around EUR 1.2 billion in assets under management across its three investment strategies (Impact Private Equity, Impact Ventures, and Microfinance). Describe Trill Impact’s impact perspective?

“We are convinced that private markets will play a vital role in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, by driving change at scale and speed. We see the business opportunity in serving underserved patient groups by investing in companies where financial and social returns go hand in hand.”

We see the business opportunity in serving underserved patient groups by investing in companies where financial and social returns go hand in hand.”

Describe what you believe is the future of investing?

“In my view, improving medical outcomes across patient groups in a financially sustainable manner remains the ultimate goal and this is why impact investing is the future of investing.”

Photo of Nina Rawal: Trill Impact