Corporate Venture Capital Comes in Many Flavors
Panelists:
Chris Wiltshire, Strategic Alliances, Pfizer, Inc.
Graeme Martin, President and CEO of Takeda Research Investment, Inc
Simon Greenwood, Senior Manager, Business Development, Genentech
Markus Goebel, Novartis
Greg Went, Chairman and CEO of NeuroMolecular Pharmaceuticals, Inc
Moderator: Carrie Kahn
In light of the current Pharmaceutical pipeline issues, we have witnessed substantial M&A activity in the biotech landscape. Acquisitions have outpaced IPOs over the past couple of years. Pharma is playing a role in the earlier stages of biotech as well vis a vis their Corporate Venture arms. In addition, BioPharmaceutical Corporate Venture Groups are increasingly willing to invest at earlier stages of selected biotech ventures. Some organizations are even committing themselves to full service biotech incubators. The April 11 panel, including investors from Genentech, Novartis, Pfizer and Takeda, and will discuss the goals and roles of the different types of corporate venture groups. Due diligence, board participation, deal structure and the types of deals that they are looking for will be explored. Further insight to the risks and the benefits to both parties should be elucidated by, Greg Went, a successful local serial entrepreneur and has leveraged Corporate Venture capital in several of his deals. A lively discussion will no doubt ensue.
Markus Goebel joined the Novartis Venture Fund as Managing Director in September 2004. Previously he worked as head Pharma Corporate M&A and head Nervous System BD&L Pharma. An M.D. by training and certified, amongst others, in Haematology/Oncology he worked for Farmitalia Germany and later held several positions in R&D, Marketing and Strategy at Roche headquarters before joining Novartis. Markus Goebel received an M.D. and a Ph.D. from the Ludwig Maximilian’s University in Munich and an MBA from Henley.
Dr Simon Greenwood is Senior Manager, Business Development. Dr Greenwood is the manager of GenenFUND, Genentech’s private equity fund that invests in early stage biotechnology companies, and has led investments for Genentech in companies such as ProActa and Intradigm. He has also developed strategic partnerships with companies such as Array Biopharma, Exelixis and Phenomix. Dr Greenwood joined Genentech in 2000 in the Molecular Biology department before joining Business Development in 2002.
Prior to joining Genentech, Dr Greenwood was a postdoctoral research fellow at Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of California, San Francisco. Dr Greenwood has also lectured at the University of Auckland School of Biological Sciences and has published peer reviewed scientific articles.
Dr Greenwood holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry from Massey University, New Zealand, and a Ph.D. in Genetics and Development from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York, where he was a Fulbright Scholar.
Dr. Carrie Kahn, a Director of BioE2E, served the State of Connecticut for 5 years as Managing Director of BioScience Investments, and during her tenure, established the Connecticut BioSeed Fund. She then Founded and served as CEO of Hepaticus, Inc. She is currently a Founder of Compton NanoSensor Corporation. She received her AB and PhD from the Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Dr. Martin is President and CEO of Takeda Research Investment, Inc., the corporate venture arm of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd.. He has 28 years of pharmaceutical R&D experience, principally at Wellcome, then GlaxoWellcome in the UK, and subsequently Hoffman La Roche in the USA. During this time, Dr Martin was responsible for three IND submissions and led the discovery and preclinical development of Zomig®, now marketed worldwide for the acute treatment of migraine. In 2001, Dr. Martin founded Discovery-Insight, a biopharmaceutical consultancy providing drug discovery and early development expertise to the biotech and lifescience venture institutions in the USA and Europe. Dr. Martin received his Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacology from the University of Bath, and his doctorate from University College, London, UK.
Dr. Went is currently the Chairman and CEO of NeuroMolecular Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a start-up neuropharmaceutical company focused on the development of aminoadamantanes for CNS applications. NPI is one of several companies that grew out of Halteres Associates, a consulting group that Dr. Went began with Dr. Mickey Urdea in 2003. Prior to this, Dr. Went co-founded and served as Executive Vice President and Director of CuraGen from 1992 to1999. He is currently an advisor/ board member to numerous companies and venture firms, including Tethys (co founder), Angelica Therapeutics, CMEA and MDV.
Dr. Went received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1985, his PhD in Chemical Engineering from UC Berkeley in 1990, and post-doctoral training at Cornel University. He has published in the fields of spectroscopy, genomics and neuroscience and is an inventor on over 40 issued and pending patents.
Chris Wiltshire is a Director of Pfizer’s Strategic Alliance group and is based in San Diego. The Strategic Alliance group represents Pfizer in preclinical in-licensing, technology and platform collaborations. He manages Pfizer’s portfolio of research collaboration investments, has led multiple equity investments and is supporting Pfizer’s incubator initiative. Chris has 13 years of international experience in the pharmaceutical industry in roles covering new product development, business development, sales and marketing at Pfizer and Eli Lilly. Before that, he worked as an investment banker on IPO’s, M&A and leveraged investments. Chris has an MA from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from Darden at the University of Virginia.
