Growing life sciences companies require significant investment to stay afloat. And oftentimes  the confidence in the company’s potential depends on how clear and compelling the pitch  deck is.

When Theoria Creative develops a scientific presentation deck for clients, we give careful consideration  to each slide; every word, graphic and high-level message must be clearly communicated.

The pipeline slide, in particular, is one we put a lot of thought into. Often under-utilized  — most companies will simply list programs and their progression — the life sciences pipeline slide has the  potential to position the company in a more favorable light.

Many pharma and biotech companies tend to rush past the pipeline slide when presenting. A pre-clinical company would prefer they were in clinical to have more programs to show in a pipeline. An early clinical  company would like to be in Phase 3 to impress investors with their progress. And companies  that are in Phase 3 tend to hurry through the pipeline slide to get to their clinical data results.

But the life sciences pipeline slide has two unique advantages. First, it sums up the value of the company,  and second, it’s a visual slide.

By default, the pipeline focuses the viewer’s attention on the company’s progression through  clinical trials. Unless this is the goal, we can use the pipeline slide to shift investors’ attention  to more attractive aspects of the company’s programs.

Below are some tips to help you get the most out of your life sciences pipeline slide when preparing your corporate slide deck for investor presentations.

INCLUDE MARKET OPPORTUNITY

Sometimes the main message of the pipeline slide is the market opportunity — the size  and/or the unmet need. Perhaps your company is in the early clinical stages and there isn’t much more to report. Maybe it’s the opposite, your company is entering Phase 3 and you  want to remind investors that it’s the last chance to invest while your stock price is still low.

In either case, Theoria Creative adds an additional column on the right side of the pipeline  table for market numbers. As shown on the example above – if that’s the only significant point on this slide, we’ll also use color  to highlight the column. But if there is other valuable information to point out, then we keep  this extra column simple.

OFFLOAD EXTRA INFORMATION

If your company has a complex story or complicated clinical data to communicate in the lead  program slides, use the pipeline slide to offload that information (see example above).

Some information is just not worthy of an entire slide, but still needs to be mentioned.  Instead of haphazardly including it as a secondary message on another slide, note it during  the pipeline discussion. Such “leftover” information could include: the name of the  molecule, a partnership on product development, technology, or categories of targeted diseases.

If this auxiliary information is not the primary message of your slide, it is best positioned on  the left side of the pipeline. If this information is significant — for example, a drug  development partnership with a large, well-known pharma company — then you’d want to  place it on the right side of the pipeline to conclude your talk track with.

ADJUST VISUALS FOR IMPACT

Visuals can help viewers associate information with the feeling you’re trying to convey.

Do you want your audience of potential investors to feel that you’ve come a long way in your program development  (even if you are still an early stage)? Use longer horizontal progress bars in your pipeline table  and make the phase columns wider (as shown in the example above).

Line thickness also helps communicate rapid development and potential success. But we  only use thick or heavy lines in the progress bars when program development is the sole or  main message of the pipeline slide.

Do you have something important you’d like to emphasize on your life sciences pipeline slide? Use icons to stress its relevance. If your company has earned orphan drug designation, filed an IND or  received FDA approval, add a graphic on the right side of the slide to maximize impact.

Contact us to receive our free file with 7 pipeline slide templates and one slide with pipeline icons. Mix and match elements from each to create a pipeline that best represents your company’s program development.

Have questions or want us to review your current investor pitch deck? ​Contact us​ — we are happy to help.  Our team has years of experience creating meaningful content and simple visuals to develop  powerful corporate presentation decks that raise funds.