Paola Pozzi

Paola joined us in 2018 as Partner with the Sofinnova Telethon Strategy, 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.

Paola got her 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.