MD/MBA for biotech/healthcare VC

[fishrfriendsnotfood]

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Looking to apply to med school (hopefully next cycle) and am very interested in becoming an MD. that being said, i am also interested in the healthcare business as a whole and would like to be involved in biotech/healthcare venture capital/private equity in the future potentially. How would med schools look upon an internship in these fields? And would an MBA be helpful for these fields? I think it would be very cool to find the intersection of rising start-ups and using my knowledge in healthcare to get them there. Please let me know.

 

[bizdr]

Most of these companies will value having an MD much more than an MBA, which is far more common. They can teach you the business side. If you want to go into VC, they care a lot about pedigree. I had a friend with an MD/MBA from Tufts, top of his class - but it was very hard getting his foot in that door, since he didn't have an Ivy name next to his degree. But there are plenty of other healthcare related business jobs out there.

 

[ChaseD702]

Are you looking to become a VC investor at some point, or make a difference now? Why not concentrate on your own start-up? Not only would this give much of the experience needed, but may be a good in for VC networking.

 

[Got Em]

If you want to do VC, and to a lesser extent biotech/pharm, a top 5/10 MBA would be better than an MD from anywhere. A non-top 20 MBA would almost make it impossible to get into VC. With that said, if you can get a Harvard/Hopkins MD, they'll look at you as well, but from what I've heard a top 5 MBA is better in this case.

 

[ChaseD702]

You could also try getting some info from the podcasts by VC, like Angel by Jason Calcanis or The Syndicate.

 

[ganglia777]

There are many biotech VCs that have an MD/MBA or even just MD. Hint: they all went to top med schools (Harvard, etc.)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kush-parmar-m-d-ph-d-5165582
http://flagshippioneering.com/people/david-berry/
Hannah Chang « Biocom Global Life Science Partnering Conference
Garheng Kong — HealthQuest Capital
GV / Vineeta Agarwala

 

[751866]

Advice in this thread is pretty spot on regarding the MBA required. I have a business background and this is perfectly accurate. If you want an MBA for personal education, it generally will be very superficial and most people obtain one for networking and connections. For the latter benefits, the top 5/10 MBA programs are a must if you want any value; the higher the rank the better. That's where connections are and that's where you get any value from having the MBA.