JPMorgan Establishes Life Sciences Private Equity Division

What You Should Know:

– J.P. Morgan Asset Management announced the establishment of a new life sciences private equity team, Life Sciences Private Capital.

– The new team will focus on investing in both early and growth-stage healthcare companies across multiple strategies aligned to specific market opportunities, with a focus on novel therapeutics and technologies in several target areas including Genetic Medicine, Oncology, Neurodegenerative Disease, Rare Diseases, Autoimmunity, AI/ML platforms, Metabolic Diseases and Neuropsychology.

– The Life Sciences Private Capital team will sit within J.P. Morgan Private Capital, a growth equity and private credit investment platform.

Life Sciences Private Capital Leadership

J.P. Morgan Asset Management has hired industry expert Dr. Stephen Squinto as Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner of Life Sciences Private Capital. Dr. Squinto joins from OrbiMed Advisors and brings more than 30 years of experience in the biotechnology company building and investing space, having co-founded and built numerous biotechnology companies including Alexion Pharmaceuticals and acting as a key scientific founder of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

Joining Dr. Squinto as Co-Managing Partners of the investment strategy are Dr. Gaurav Gupta and Ms. Anya Schiess. Dr. Gupta founded life science investment firm Ascendant BioCapital and was previously involved in private equity investments at OrbiMed Advisors. Ms. Schiess has over 25 years of experience in healthcare investing and most recently was Co-Founder and General Partner of Healthy Ventures. Full biographies are included below.

“I’m thrilled to join J.P. Morgan to launch the Life Sciences Private Capital team. Our major focus will be to offer our investors a differentiated investment platform that harnesses our deep operational expertise to act as true partners to the companies we invest in – from building strong leadership teams, guiding early drug discovery efforts, designing clinical development programs, and navigating the regulatory environment through to commercial launch strategies,” said Dr. Stephen Squinto, Chief Investment Officer, Life Sciences Private Capital. “As advances in genomics, biomarkers and data science converge, we are seeing firsthand the transformative impact that biomedical innovation can offer to patients at all stages of life and we expect much more to come in the next decade. J.P. Morgan’s existing presence in the healthcare sector will give us a significant sourcing advantage as we seek to identify innovative and transformative therapeutics companies.”

Strategic Advisors

In addition to the hiring of Dr. Squinto, Dr. Gupta and Ms. Schiess, the firm has also attracted a group of Strategic Advisors comprised of some of the life sciences industry’s foremost experts that will help guide the investment strategy, help to source investment opportunities and provide operational expertise to J.P. Morgan’s portfolio companies.  Strategic Advisors include:

– Laurie Glimcher, M.D. – President and CEO, Dana Farber Cancer Institute

– Jeffrey Leiden, M.D., Ph.D. – Executive Chairman, Vertex Pharmaceuticals

– Frederic Moll, M.D. – Chief Development Officer, J&J Medical Devices Companies

– Stephen Oesterle, M.D. – Former Medtronic SVP, Medicine and Technology

– Robert Stockman – Former Chairman, REVA Medical

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