PharmaTelevision - Francesco De Rubertis, Index Ventures, discusses biotech business models that work

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Video title: Francesco De Rubertis, Index Ventures, discusses biotech business models that work

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In this episode of PharmaTelevision News Review, Fintan Walton talks to Francesco De Rubertis, Life Sciences Partner at Index Ventures

Full video transcripts are available with PharmaTelevision Premium Content. Click here to buy a subscription or sign up for a 14 day free trial.

Types of funds, investments and business model

Fintan Walton:

Hello and welcome to PharmaTelevision News Review here in Munich at BIO-Europe 2010. On this show I have Francesco De Rubertis, who is a Partner at Index Ventures , welcome to the show.

Francesco De Rubertis:

Thank you, nice to be here.

Fintan Walton:

Nice to have you here. Index Ventures , obviously a venture capital firm, tell us about what funds you have obviously you were founded back in the mid 1990's tell us about the types of funds you've got and which ones are actually active right now?

Francesco De Rubertis:

Right, and so we've got a number of funds all of them are mixed funds, so we invest both in biotechnology life sciences and information technologies and actually I would say that information technology is a bigger share of the whole equation. And every fund has got an early venture, early stage venture capital strategy so we go in really very early stage you know seeds financing, early stage series A financing and then since couple of years we have also started a second line of the business which we call Index Growth which has raised the fund, the first fund Index Growth one that we raised back in 2008 with a strategy both in information technology and life sciences for investing in mature companies, mature companies can be public companies, can be late stage private companies, can be companies that are generating a cash flow so companies more in the services businesses, in the medical device businesses, but if you know the definition of late stage and we've been active across Europe and the US, and I would say historically we've been 80% Europe focused, 20% US focused and probably over time we are increasing the trend towards the US to be balanced a little bit better.

Fintan Walton:

So over the years Index Ventures has have been obviously active, has the character of the types of companies you invest in changed?

Full video transcripts are available with PharmaTelevision Premium Content. Click here to buy a subscription or sign up for a 14 day free trial.

Fintan Walton

Dr.Fintan Walton is the Founder and CEO of PharmaVentures. After completing his doctoral research on the genetics of cell proliferation at the University of Michigan( US )and Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland ), Dr Walton gained broad commercial experience in biotechnology in management positions at Bass and Celltech plc(1982-1992).

Francesco De Rubertis

Partner

Francesco De Rubertis is a Partner in the firm's life sciences practice. He joined Index Ventures in 1998 and has served on the board of numerous companies including Genmab, Bioxell, Addex, Parallele, 7TM and Pangenetics. Prior to joining Index Ventures , Francesco De Rubertis was involved in post-doctoral research in genetics at the Whitehead Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is also the author of several publications in international scientific journals. Francesco De Rubertis has a BA in Genetics and Microbiology from the University of Pavia and a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Geneva. He is also a CFA charter holder.

PharmaVentures

PharmaVentures is a corporate finance and transactions advisory firm that has served hundreds of clients worldwide in relation to their strategic deal making in the pharmaceutical, life science and healthcare sectors. Our key offerings include: Transactions / deal negotiations; Product / technology valuations; Deal term advice; Due diligence & expert reports; Strategy formulation; Alliance management; and Expert opinion for litigation/arbitration cases. PharmaVentures provides the global expertise to ensure our clients generate the highest possible return on investment from all their deal making activities. We have experience of all therapeutic areas and can offer advice on both product and technology commercialisation.

Index Ventures

Index Ventures is a leading global venture capital firm active in technology venture investing since 1996. The firm is dedicated to helping top entrepreneurial teams in the Information Technology, Clean Technology and Life Science sectors build their companies into market defining global leaders. The firm has offices in Geneva, London and Jersey and focuses on investments from seed through growth stage companies. In the life sciences field, Index Ventures invests in companies with disruptive platform technologies capable of growing into global leaders. It has also pioneered the asset-centric investment model, focused on investing in single assets with the potential to be first or best in class. More recently it has expanded its focus into the diagnostic/medical device areas. Current portfolio companies include Aegerion, Cellzome, Cyrenaic, Funxional Therapeutics, Micromet, Molecular Partners, Mind-NRG, NormOxys, Novocure and Sequenta. Exits of note include Addex Pharma (ADXN), Genmab (GEN), PanGenetics (Abbott) and ParAllele Bioscience (Affymetrix).