Blockchain-powered marketplaces will be like steroids for crowd investing
Crowdfunding, but for promising cancer drugs. Like a Kickstarter campaign, but instead of a memento or special access to the product, you get an actual share in the drug’s potential future sales. Would you do it? Biotech firm Agenus wants to give you a chance—something it says is now possible thanks to blockchain technology.
As for Agenus, the problem it is trying to solve is that biotech companies often have trouble raising money to develop new drugs and bring them to market, since the process is so risky and expensive. Agenus is betting its new crypto-token, which it calls the Biotech Electronic Security Token (BEST), will be more compelling to investors than traditional biotech financing instruments. Particularly attractive will be the ability to trade them on regulated internet marketplaces, the first of which are just now starting to go live. The new approach, proclaims CEO Garo Armen, has the potential to “revolutionize the financing of drug development.”
Whether they have issued or plan to issue “digital securities,” “tokenized securities,” or “security tokens” (pick your buzzword), this is essentially what Agenus and every other such project is aiming to pull off: an ICO that follows the rules.
See the full story here: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613135/blockchain-powered-marketplaces-will-be-like-steroids-for-crowd-investing/?utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=71132857&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-91lX_sT138-yWBoFtQX11Kcmx1I711hWn5zi_AEXyhDHorefp4XQKxQhaNhbLMkKUu8LVAKup1opR8m4t5bAnH23xz_w&_hsmi=71132857