Finding Qualified Leads in One of the Most Complex Ecosystems in B2B — AI Drug Discovery

OWKIN is a French-American AI biotech company valued at over $1B, backed by Sanofi and BMS, with partnerships spanning Anthropic, NVIDIA, and eight of the top ten global pharma companies. The company uses AI to discover new drug targets, optimize clinical trials, and build diagnostic tools. Historically, OWKIN's revenue came from multi-million dollar service engagements with major pharmaceutical companies. The company was now launching a new SaaS product — OWKIN K — targeting biotechs and mid-sized pharma at a lower price point, opening an entirely new market segment. Sebastien Blanchard, Director of Commercial Sales, was responsible for proving this segment was viable.

Selling AI-powered drug discovery tools to biotech companies is one of the hardest outbound motions in B2B. The buyer personas are CEOs, Chief Scientific Officers, Chief Medical Officers, VPs of R&D, and Heads of Computational Biology — deeply technical leaders who are skeptical of vendor outreach by default. The competitive ecosystem is dense, the science is complex, and the TAM is narrow (roughly 300-400 global biotech companies that fit the profile). Sebastien and one colleague were handling outbound themselves but didn't have the bandwidth to run a structured, multi-channel campaign alongside everything else on their plate. They needed a partner who could operate credibly in this space.

Sellerate embedded one SDR into OWKIN's team for a focused six-month engagement, primarily targeting the US East Coast with some European coverage. The connection came through LinkedIn — Mariano pitched Sellerate's work with Palantir, which resonated because Sebastien's own background included time at Palantir.

The SDR ran a multi-channel campaign across LinkedIn, email, and phone, targeting senior scientific and commercial leaders at biotech and mid-sized pharma companies. Over the engagement, the team sent 4,345 LinkedIn invites (12.2% acceptance rate), 1,575 LinkedIn messages, 2,242 emails, and made 1,764 calls. Out of 169 total engagements, 42 were positive — a 24.9% positive rate — and 10 converted into completed qualified meetings with the exact personas OWKIN needed to reach. Nine email campaigns were launched, each tailored to different segments within the biotech ecosystem.

Complex ecosystems require a partner who adapts, not one who runs a playbook.Selling AI drug discovery tools to Chief Scientific Officers isn't the same as selling SaaS to VPs of Sales. Sellerate adapted its entire approach — messaging, personas, channels, cadence — to an ecosystem where credibility and scientific fluency matter more than volume.

A 24.9% positive engagement rate in biotech is exceptional.In an industry where buyers are notoriously hard to reach and skeptical of outbound, nearly one in four engagements resulted in a positive response. This reflects targeting precision, not spray-and-pray.

Palantir connections open unexpected doors.Mariano found Sebastien through LinkedIn by leading with Sellerate's Palantir work. Sebastien's own Palantir background made the connection credible. This is the third engagement in Sellerate's portfolio that traces back to the Palantir relationship — a pattern, not a coincidence.