I am a physician with a successful history of tech and biotech investments. I am not an investment advisor or professional investor, so I listen carefully to learn from the best investors of our time. Peter Thiel, a billionaire and founder of PayPal and Palantir, recently conducted an interview with Joe Lonsdale. Joe asked Peter a simple question: what criteria does he use to find the most lucrative business opportunities?

He provided three such criteria:

1.      Look for obvious solutions that have not been implemented. Physicians were aware for many decades that ionizing radiation could be used to treat cancer. However, it damaged all tissues in a straight line as it passed through the body. The “Gamma Knife” was a brilliant solution in which small amounts of radiation from many directions were focused on the tumor – this allowed the tumor to be treated with minimal damage to surrounding tissues which was particularly important for brain tumors. When I first learned about the Gamma Knife, it seemed like such a simple concept – I could not believe that someone had not thought of it earlier. 

Tumor Treating Fields have been well known, for the past 25 years, to damage cancer cells of a specific size and electrical properties, while leaving all other cells unharmed. However, Peter Travers was the first person to have the idea that individual electrodes could be controlled to achieve two important benefits:  to focus the field to increase the field strength and to move the focus from one tumor to another without moving the array. In retrospect, it seems like a simple idea, but I believe that we will soon see the profound effects on tumor therapy.

2.      Avoid popular sectors where Venture Capitalists (VCs) network. VCs are certainly heavily involved in cancer treatments, especially chemotherapy and immunotherapy. However, tumor treating fields occupy a very specific niche misunderstood by VCs. As even oncologists are only just now beginning to understand the full potential of tumor treating fields, it is not surprising that less medically sophisticated VCs have not caught up yet. LifeBridge is truly the bleeding edge of cancer therapy. Since VCs are not aware of LifeBridge, the valuation has not been bid up to reduce the profit potential for early investors. I personally believe that LifeBridge investors have a significant potential to profit, if the FDA trials are successful as the science suggests. 

3.      Target areas with zero competition. It was this statement by Peter Thiel that really made me think of LifeBridge. It is only the second company in the area of tumor treating fields. In addition, LifeBridge has targeted the orphan of cancer therapy – patients who have exhausted all other treatments. The more rudimentary Novocure technology cannot and will not ever be able to compete with LifeBridge in the treatment of metastatic cancer. On any given day in the US there are 550,000 people and 25 million people in the world who are literally “dying” to get this technology. This market is massive and desperate. I am not aware of any technology with a market of this size with less competition.  

LifeBridge is currently completing the animal trials requested by the FDA. Over 2,000 hours of Adaptive Tumor Treating Field (ATTF) therapy has been completed with no adverse events noted. If the animal trial is successful, LifeBridge is significantly closer to treating humans. The FDA has approved LifeBridges human study protocol with Basket Trial Design. This means that once LifeBridge finishes its requirements and gains permission to open its human trial, it will be able to treat 10 different types of cancer in one trial, saving years of research and millions of dollars.   

The only current company using tumor treating fields is Novocure (Nasdaq NVCR, market cap $2B) which currently receives 95% of its gross revenue (over $600M in 2024) by treating glioblastoma of the brain. To compare the present potential market of Novocure to LifeBridge’s, I asked Grok AI to do the following: “Compare the number of cases of glioblastoma in the US each year to the number of cases of metastatic solid cancer tumors to the trunk, excluding the bones”.  In the conclusion, it said, “Glioblastoma accounts for approximately 12,000-14,490 new cases annually in the U.S., while metastatic solid tumors in the trunk (pancreas, colon, liver, lungs, etc.) likely account for 200,000-400,000 cases annually.” The emphasis was added by Grok. 

Novocure uses fixed arrays which are not suited for the treatment of multiple metastatic lesions. In contrast, LifeBridge was designed specifically to treat a market that Grok estimates is roughly 10-20 times larger than the current glioblastoma market which is providing excellent gross revenue to Novocure. 

In April, the valuation of LifeBridge was reduced from $26.71 million to only $21.31 million for the next $350,000 invested in order to expand the animal trials to maximize the data for the FDA. Just over $100,000 has already been invested at this lower valuation. I have personally invested more at $21.31M and believe that it would be worth your time to reinvestigate investing in LifeBridge. Over$3.8M has been invested to date in this round.

LifeBridge is honored to be a Johnson and Johnson JLABS portfolio company, where it receives mentoring, access to advanced research facilities and introduction to potential long term capital partners.

Since I am not an investment advisor, you will need to do your own research and invest accordingly, but I hope that you will join me as an investor in LifeBridge

John M. Young, MD

Family Medicine Centers – Private Practice

Texas Tech University – Clinical Assistant Professor