Collaboration by investment
A venture capital fund with roots in big pharma, International BM Biomedicine Holdings Inc. is putting together a portfolio of biotechnology companies that resemble a research partnership portfolio for pharmaceutical R&D. That perspective should come as no surprise, as Biomedicine Partners, the fund's management team, includes Jurgen Drews, former president of global R&D at Roche; Fritz Buhler, formerly responsible for worldwide clinical R&D at Roche; and Stefan Ryser, former head of the research staff of global pharma research at Roche.
Biomedicine Partners (Basel, Switzerland) last week announced its investment in Telik Inc. (see B7 and B17), the fund's fourth portfolio company. Prior investments include Exelixis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (South San Francisco, Calif.), Artemis Pharmaceuticals GmbH (Cologne, Germany) and Genaissance Pharmaceuticals Inc. (New Haven, Conn.)...