Alok Tayi thinks the biggest obstacle to treating patients with rare diseases isn’t finding potential treatments but funding them. Vibe Bio, a decentralized autonomous organization, is building a community of patient advocates and investors where holders of a crypto currency token Vibe sells each get to vote on how to invest its pool of money in rare disease drug development efforts. Once a decision is made to invest in the development of a therapy, Vibe creates a traditional corporation and uses conventional financing mechanisms. We spoke to Tayi, co-founder and CEO of Vibe Bio, about its approach, why he believes it will lead to the development of therapies that would otherwise go unfunded, and how the company’s decision-making model works.
