Abivax reports excellent one-year efficacy and safety data of ABX464 phase 2b maintenance trial in ulcerative colitis

LimFlow raises $40 million (€36 million) in Series D financing

Redx nominates GI-targeted ROCK Inhibitor, RXC008, as clinical development candidate

Abivax reports promising ABX464 phase 2A one-year maintenance results in rheumatoid arthritis

Inventiva announces that its IND application for the Phase II combination trial with lanifibranor and empagliflozin in patients with NASH and T2D has been accepted by the FDA

Tom Burt, partner at Sofinnova Partners, speaks at Edison Group’s Open House Global Healthcare Event

Crossover

Abivax

Artios Pharma

Calliditas

GenSight Biologics 

Inventiva 

MD Start

LimFlow

Capital

Mainstay Medical

MaxCyte

Redx Pharma

Sensorion 

Sphere Fluidics

Industrial Biotech

Synthace

Closing a financing gap

The Sofinnova Crossover Strategy supports ground-breaking innovations in later-stage biotech and medtech companies, enabling ambitious life sciences companies to reach their full potential.

Kinam Hong

Cedric Moreau

Joe Anderson

Tom Burt

Joe Anderson is a partner in the Sofinnova Crossover Strategy. He joined us in 2020 from Arix Bioscience plc, an LSE-listed venture capital firm where he was co-founder and CEO for 5 years.

Joe has extensive experience in the healthcare and life science industries, including 12 years as partner at Abingworth LLP, where he led venture-style investments in public companies and the formation of the firm’s public equities fund.

As an investor and active board member he has helped companies with financings, IPOs, and M&As, including Algeta (sold to Bayer for $2.9bn), Amarin (listed on the Nasdaq), Autolus (listed on the Nasdaq) and Cytos (merged with Kuros).

Joe is upbeat about the rate of progress in life sciences. "Rapid advances in science over the past decade enabled the development of a vaccine for Covid a year after the first cases emerged. There’s no way you could have done that 10 years ago,” he said. “That’s just the tip of the iceberg. We are also seeing huge acceleration in our understanding of disease processes in cancer, cardiovascular and neurology. This pace of discovery promises to bring unprecedented benefits to human health in coming years. It is exciting to help companies find that next gear of growth as they bring new medicines to market.”

His early career was at the Wellcome Trust where he became head of the strategy group for 9 years.He then moved into equities research as a pharmaceuticals analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, and then fund management with the global healthcare & biotechnology fund at First State Investments, before moving into venture capital in 2004.

Tom joined the Sofinnova Crossover Fund team in June 2017 from Peel Hunt, where he was senior research analyst for healthcare & life sciences.

He has 11 years of diverse investing expertise, with over $1.5 billion in total completed transactions.

Tom, with an EngD in biochemical engineering and experience working on the manufacture of vaccines at GlaxoSmithKline, brings an engineer’s mindset to the world of venture capital.

He put science in the foreground when he explained the financing gap that led to the Sofinnova Crossover investment strategy. "The science in Europe is the same quality as any you'll find in the U.S.," he said. "But there is a shortage of capital in the late-stage venture arena, which is eventually reflected in prices. So, the European companies have the same excellence in scientific innovations, at a more attractive price" than those in the U.S.

Tom worked for several years with Jacques Theurillat at Ares Life Sciences. Prior to that, he was at Novo Growth Equity, a Danish fund focused on late-stage investments in both public and private life science companies and a member of Piper Jaffray’s European healthcare investment banking team.

He holds Doctorate and Master’s degrees in biochemical engineering (University College London and University of Birmingham) and an undergraduate degree in Biotechnology. Tom is a chartered member of Association of Engineering Doctorates.

Kinam joined us in January 2017 as a partner driving Sofinnova's later-stage, crossover investment strategy. Prior to joining Sofinnova Partners, Kinam was a co-manager of the Exane Equinox fund, a global healthcare fund backing later-stage, public biotechnology companies. Before that, he spent 10 years as an investor and analyst covering the biotechnology sector, including at Citigroup Investment Research, where he specialized in small- and mid-cap biotechnology companies.

Kinam was attracted by Sofinnova Crossover's hands-on approach to later-stage investing. "It's different when you are an active investor with a larger ownership," he says. "You have the ability to make a bigger impact. Sometimes you need to be in the room.”

Prior to his investment career, Kinam worked in new product development at Sanofi, the multinational pharmaceutical company, where he held various roles in product development, business development and strategic marketing, working on infectious diseases and oncology licensing deals, and on the company’s China strategy.

Kinam is a physician and scientist, holding degrees in molecular biology/biochemistry and medicine from the University of Florida. He also holds a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) and MBA from INSEAD (France).

Kinam enjoys combining the medicine and investing aspects of his role, which "has the potential to make an impact on patients and makes every day interesting."

Cedric joined us in June 2018, bringing his 18 years of experience in life sciences investment banking. He is a partner on the Crossover team.

Cedric joined from Oddo BHF where he was managing director and head of healthcare in the corporate finance department. In 2017, Oddo BHF was the top ranked firm for European biotech equity capital market deals.

Prior to this, he was director at Bryan Garnier & Co where he completed several sizable cross-border transactions, including Galapagos, DBV, Ablynx, and Celyad. In total, he has managed more than 2 billion euros in European healthcare transactions.

Cedric brings to the Crossover team his transactional expertise in the biopharma industry, as well as an extensive network of key opinion leaders, bankers and lawyers.

Cedric was well known to the Sofinnova team before he came onboard, having executed several mandates for portfolio companies.

He said the Sofinnova Crossover team was taking a different approach compared with crossover transactions in the U.S., which typically involve investing just ahead of a company’s IPO.

"We are more like late-stage VC investors," he said. "It's really the stage of maturity of the company that is important for us. Rather than thinking about Series B or what round it is, we buy into companies depending on their clinical stage development and proof of concept," then help them get ready for what comes next — usually a listing on the Nasdaq, and/or a deal with a major pharma or healthcare company.

Before his corporate finance career, Cedric spent 10 years as a healthcare equity analyst, and was several times EXTEL top ranked (awarded for both individual and team performances) at Natixis and Fortis. He was in charge of coverage of listed biotech and pharma companies.

Cedric holds a Master’s in Economics and post-graduate diploma in Finance and Taxation (Sorbonne) and diploma from the Société Française des Analystes Financiers (SFAF).


Jacques joined us in 2017 and brings the Crossover team his extensive experience in biopharmaceutical company operations, as well as his know-how when it comes to making private and public investments.

His experience in building a team of international investors to deploy a new strategy is also important for the Crossover team. He is expected to take positions on the board of some of the public companies in which the Fund will invest.

Jacques co-founded in 2008 and managed Ares Life Sciences, a privately owned investment fund with the objective to build and manage a portfolio of companies in life sciences. Jacques built a new team of 9 professionals and invested €1.25 billion in six public and private companies including Euromedic International BV, Esaote Spa, Bronchus Technologies Inc, Santhera Pharmaceuticals, Stallergenes SA, Greer Inc. In June 2015, Stallergenes and Greer merged creating the worldwide market leader in Allergy Immunotherapy.

Jacques had previously spent almost 20 years in the Serono pharmaceutical group, where he was deputy CEO and senior executive vice president for strategic corporate development, responsible for Serono’s global strategy and in-licensing initiatives. Jacques also served as Serono’s president of European and international sales & marketing and CFO. In his various roles at Serono, Jacques was responsible for several major equity financings of the company, including the $2 billion listing on the NYSE in 2000, one of the largest-ever biotech secondary offerings worldwide. Jacques was also involved in the process that led to the sale of the company to Merck KGA for 14 billion Swiss Francs.

Jacques is a Swiss barrister and holds Bachelor of Law degrees from both Madrid University and Geneva University. He also holds a Swiss Federal Diploma (Tax Expert) and has a Master’s degree in Finance.

Kuang joined us in December 2019 as an Analyst for the Crossover Strategy. She started her career at Procter & Gamble (Beauty & Grooming) as a summer intern, where she witnessed how science-driven innovations benefited millions of people for the first time.

Driven by her deep curiosity and a desire to make a positive impact on the world, she continued to broaden her knowledge base and skillset. At ExxonMobil, Kuang conducted an industrial postdoc on novel preventative approaches against microbe-mediated pipeline corrosion, for which she received a Research Breakthrough Award.

Later, at the University of Michigan, she developed early cancer diagnostic tools using wearable device-based, non-invasive biomarkers and was a recipient of the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award.

Kuang is a Reviewer at 81cents, an organization that helps close gender pay gaps.

She received a B.S. from Peking University and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Indiana University - Bloomington.

Claire joined us in February 2021 as an analyst with the Crossover team. Prior to joining Sofinnova Partners, Claire was an analyst on the Life Sciences team at Andera Partners, where she identified and invested in biotech and medtech companies.

Claire has a Ph.D. in Hemato-Oncology from Paris Diderot University, which she carried out at the Institut Curie, working on elucidating signaling pathways involved in the activity of leukemic-initiating cells in T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL).

She also holds an M.Sc. from the French engineering school Agrocampus Ouest and a degree in Biopharmaceutical Management from ESCP Business School. Her research has been published in journals such as Nature Communications and Cancer Cell.

TheTeam