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Sofinnova Partners charging ahead in Italy

Telethon

AAVantgarde Bio

Alia Therapeutics

Borea Therapeutics

Chroma Medicine

Capital

GeneSpire 

Nephris

PinCell

Rare genetic disorders

The Sofinnova Telethon Strategy seeks early-stage projects to bring the best Italian science to the world stage.

Paola Pozzi

Lucia Faccio

Paola joined us in 2018 as partner with the Sofinnova Telethon Fund, Italy’s first biotechnology fund focused on rare and genetic diseases. Prior to that, she was head of the Office of Biotechnology Transfer of Ospedale San Raffaele, an internationally renowned research hospital based in Milan, where she spent 14 years actively promoting and contributing to scouting, protecting and licensing intellectual property, including through the incorporation of start-ups.

Pozzi got a master's degree in intellectual property law before heading up the patent portfolio at St. Raffaele. She uses that knowledge, along with some new skills, to fund ideas that could change lives.

“As partners at Sofinnova Telethon Fund, we need to negotiate the agreements that drive the incorporation process and the set-up of the company,” she said. “My experience helps me understand what I want to get from the institutions and, from a future perspective, what I want to see developed in the company.”

Prior to her time at San Raffaele, Paola spent more than 2 years working at The National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, studying neurobiology using RNA interference.

She holds a degree in pharmaceutical biotechnology from the University of Milan and a master’s in Intellectual Property Law from the Just Legal Services, a legal training school in Milan.

Lucia joined us in 2018 as a partner in the Sofinnova Telethon Fund, bringing her extensive experience in technology transfer and business development in the life sciences sector.

Prior to joining Sofinnova Partners, Lucia was the director of research & development at Fondazione Telethon, an Italian charity whose mission is to develop therapies for patients affected by rare and genetic diseases. Fondazione Telethon is Sofinnova’s partner in the Telethon Fund, Italy’s largest biotechnology fund.

“Recent history is telling us that we need to dare more,” Faccio says, adding that it takes venture capitalists with scientific backgrounds to really “get” the technology, science and innovation happening in the rare diseases space.

“There has to be more willingness to invest in the early stage,” she said. “Consider that if nobody had invested in mRNA vaccine technology 10 years ago, I don't think we would have had the Covid vaccine in less than one year.”

Lucia has over 20 years of experience in business development in life sciences, with an exceptional track record for identifying projects with strong translational potential, and developing them through solid intellectual property positions, technology transfer, regulatory affairs, and license agreements with industry partners.

Before she joined Fondazione Telethon, Lucia was the director of technology transfer of San Raffaele Hospital, the largest private hospital in Italy and a leading national research center.

Lucia has a degree in pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of Padua in Italy and a Ph.D. in biotechnology from the University of l’Aquila, Italy, in association with the Harvard Medical School and conducted at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Tiziana joined us in 2019 as an associate in the Telethon Strategy.

Prior to joining Sofinnova Partners, she worked as senior analyst at Innogest Capital and as intern analyst at Merck Ventures.

Tiziana is a trained scientist, has a PhD in neuroscience from Royal Holloway University of London and worked as a postdoc at Imperial College London and the University of Pittsburgh.

She is a former Fulbright fellow (Business and Entrepreneurship, Santa Clara University), holds a M.Sc. in Neuroscience and a B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Rome.

Tiziana is author of several scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals such as Nature, Science and Cell Transplantation Journals.

Paola Pizzi is our office manager in Milan. 

TheTeam