Freedom-to-operate (FTO) used to be the analysis a life-science company commissioned before a product launch or a sale. Public funders have moved it to the top of the list — and where they have led, private capital is following.
Freedom-to-operate used to sit late in a life-science company’s product timeline. You raised funding on the strength of your own patent positions, advanced the programme, and commissioned a serious FTO opinion shortly before a product launch, a trade sale, or an initial public offering made third-party infringement risk concrete. Diligence on the buy side priced that risk; the company itself often deferred it. That sequence has inverted, and the clearest signal comes from the public funders that sit at the very start of the journey, especially in life science which is highly dependent on incoming capital.
