For Alan Leong, stock values extend beyond the bottom line. He co-founded BioWatch News, a soon-to-relaunch website that offers biotech investors commentary, interviews and global market analysis.
Readers appreciate the knowledge of how to better invest in the future — both financially and philosophically.
“I have a passion for biotech because you see amazing things happening,” Leong says. “When there is a previously incurable disease and a child is saved by new advancements, there is no other feeling in the world like that. We get to have a front-row seat.”
The first incarnation of BioWatch News launched in 2000 with a newsletter-focused format. In 2013, it was re-envisioned as a magazine publication. It is relaunching this year as a web-based offering in order to minimize overhead and expand the freedom to publish faster. The initial rollout is planned for this summer with a formal launch in the subsequent 12 to 18 months.
BioWatch News readers have long been a mix of individuals, institutions, funds and more. In addition to the site’s free content, an eventual subscriber section will offer more comprehensive, high-end services.
“Our stock and trade is to get better and better at communicating each biotech company’s story,” Leong says. “We have a definable edge in knowing what I call the important parts of the science. My job is to explain the relevant parts as well as I can to investors.”
BioWatch News maintains a global outlook, but is headquartered in Bothell where it is part of the area’s growing biotech community.
Both Seattle Genetics and Alder BioPharmaceuticals are also based in Bothell. Juno Therapeutics and Cocrystal Pharma maintain local presences as well.
“Biotech has come in waves in the greater Puget Sound region. We have a ways to go, but there are wonderful things happening,” says Leong, who lives in Bothell. “We’re probably going to need to cross a couple more bridges to ascend to the first tier, but people still see the area as significant.”
Leong describes his own background as having been the type of kid who “read Popular Science magazine in his room.”
His academic background includes undergraduate work in math, business and social sciences, graduate work in engineering and a Ph.D. in social sciences.
He has taught management and entrepreneurship for the past 18 years including at University of Washington’s Bothell and Seattle campuses, and specifically via UW’s Arthur W. Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship.
“Alan is 100 percent dedicated to his students. He sometimes stays up until two or three in the morning helping them. He takes them to another level they didn’t even know they had,” says Samson Ramirez, Leong’s former student who is serving as co-founder of BioWatch New’s current relaunch.
Ramirez, 26, originally envisioned a possible career in corporate banking.
Four university classes with Leong and a few special projects convinced him to pursue a path where investing was about more than just dollars and cents.
“We want our readers to understand that you’re not just investing money, but investing in the medicine of tomorrow — your kids’ futures,” Ramirez says. “You’re providing resources for a company to bring products to fruition that help humanity.”
BioWatch News has repeatedly featured Corcept Therapeutics, a California-based company studying the cortisol hormone.
Their research can be applied to the treatment of diseases ranging from cancer to diabetes.
“A major thing that may sound simple — but it’s not — is that BioWatch News is providing top-shelf analysis for essentially individual investors who would otherwise have difficulty finding equivalent info,” says Joe Belanoff, co-founder and CEO of Corcept Therapeutics.
“It’s important to me that people really understand what we’re doing. They’ll make their individual investment decisions, but I’m always pleased when they can explain the reasons why and the science,” Belanoff says.
For now, Leong and Ramirez are the driving forces. The hope is to eventually add a third, full-time person and a few support staff or interns assisting with ground-level work.
Leong believes the new site will benefit from the experience of past endeavors.
He hopes to increase the focus on offering differing viewpoints albeit under the same umbrella of values.
“Actually, we don’t want to be our client’s only source because we shouldn’t be. People should be getting information from a wide range of sources,” Leong says. “What we want is to be their favorite source with well-thought, irresistible information they can’t find anywhere else.”
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