Private equity firm taps ex-Editas CEO Jim Mullen to help expand pharma portfolio — with a nod to cell, gene therapies

Jim Mullen is lending his years of biotech CEO experience — from Biogen, Patheon and Editas — to the private equity firm Advent International.

John Maldonado

Advent managing partner John Maldonado said Mullen will help his team expand their reach to pharmaceutical and pharma services companies “across contract manufacturing, commercialization, and research.”

“Jim’s work at Editas and Thermo Fisher have put him at the forefront of the cell and gene therapy revolution,” Carmine Petrone, managing director at Advent, added in a statement. “We are excited to partner with Jim as we continue to look for transformative companies that are enabling the development, manufacture and commercialization of these advanced therapies.”

As an operating partner, Mullen joins more than 125 industry executives as independent advisors to Advent and its portfolio companies.

Carmine Petrone

Mullen was perhaps best known as the former CEO of Biogen, who presided over its merger with Idec in 2003 and the growth of its multiple sclerosis franchise — but was ultimately pushed out by activist investors.

After leaving Biogen, he took up the CEO role at contract development and manufacturing organization Patheon, which was sold to Thermo Fisher for $7.2 billion in 2017. He also briefly served as CEO of gene editing pioneer Editas, where he remains chairman.

In May, Advent closed its 10th fund with $25 billion raised. Other than healthcare, the firm also invests in business & financial services; industrial; retail, consumer & leisure; and technology.

It counts close to 50 healthcare investments since 1990, betting on a range of companies around the world. Its pharma portfolio features CRO Syneos Health, generic makers Zentiva (Czech Republic) and Grupo Farmaceutico Somar (Mexico), India’s Bharat Serums and Vaccines, and Chinese capsule developer GS Capsule.

In recent years, though, Advent has made attempts to play a more direct role in drug development, including an ill-fated $8 billion deal to take rare disease player Sobi private and rumored talks with GSK about its consumer health spinout.

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