General Investing >> Money Manager Interviews >> November 16, 2018

Focusing on Health Care Through Venture Capital and a Crossover Fund

Gadicke, Dr. Ansbert
Dr. Ansbert Gadicke is Co-Founder and Managing Director of MPM Capital, Inc., and its venture capital activities as well as its oncology-only crossover investment strategy — both public and private equities. He and his partner, Luke Evnin, Ph.D., founded MPM in 1997, and since then, the MPM team they have led has been the inspiration and driving force behind building leading biopharmaceutical companies such as BioMarin Pharmaceuticals; Idenix Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Merck & Co.; Pharmasset, which was acquired by Gilead Sciences; Radius Health; and Mitobridge, which was acquired by Astellas. MPM believes that these companies, in which Dr. Gadicke was the lead investor and served on the boards, are some of the biggest successes in biotech history — companies that ultimately resulted in helping thousands of patients live longer and vastly improved lives. For example, Sovaldi, developed by Pharmasset, was the first cure for hepatitis C and experienced the most successful product launch in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to launching MPM’s venture investing activities, Dr. Gadicke led MPM’s Advisory and Investment Banking business, and prior to that, he was at The Boston Consulting Group in their Boston office. In recognition of MPM’s novel work to finance and build companies that may have a significant impact on cancer care and cures globally, Dr. Gadicke and Luke Evnin are recipients of the 2017 Global Oncology Visionary Award. Dr. Gadicke is Chairman of the board at Cullinan Oncology and TCR2 Therapeutics and as a board director at ElevateBio and iTeos Therapeutics. He is also a member of the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows and the Research Advisory Council of Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Gadicke received an M.D. from J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt and held research positions at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Biochemistry Department at Harvard University. Profile
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TWST: Could you tell me a little bit about the firm?

Dr. Gadicke: We are an entirely health-care-focused investment firm. We