Member Spotlight: Sofinnova Investments
For this deep dive, we spoke to Maha Katabi, PhD, CFA, General Partner at Sofinnova Investments.
Tell us about your firm. What makes it different:
Sofinnova Investments is a healthcare investment firm committed to funding innovative products that aspire to meaningfully impact the lives of patients. We actively partner with entrepreneurs across all stages of company formation. Our team is comprised of experienced investors and drug developers with extensive scientific expertise, vast industry knowledge, and a track record of helping companies advance drug development and navigate the regulatory process to potential FDA approval.
Our general partners have an average of 23 years of biotech investing expertise, and our executive partners have on average 25 years of drug development experience. We leverage our team’s deep operational experience to enhance likelihood of success of bringing new therapies to market.
As of 12/31/2023 Sofinnova has $3.7B in assets under management including committed capital, we’re looking to fund products that we believe can be either first in class or best in class drugs approved for patients.
What defines your portfolio?
Our core investment strategy is targeting companies developing innovative products in areas of high unmet patient need, for a uniform patient population. We work closely with management teams to establish a clinical development plan that aligns with regulatory standards and follow a clearly defined regulatory path.
Sofinnova is a therapeutic-agnostic firm, which means we invest across a large number of therapeutic areas with emphasis on innovative breakthrough treatment indications which aim to transform healthcare outcomes and address unmet medical needs for patients.
We focus on products that we believe will have a higher clinical success rate because of alignment of genetics, biology, pharmacology, and early clinical proof of concept. We invest in companies or partner with entrepreneurs that have identified novel product development opportunities to form new companies focused on advancing novel assets through clinical development, regulatory approvals and commercialization.
We have a long history of success and FDA drug approvals with companies in our portfolio, with 27 FDA approved drugs to date.
Tell us about the current VC landscape in your geography/region.
The current VC climate is signaling for opportunities as we continue to believe in the resilience of the innovation economy. We believe in today’s complex market there is still potential to attain attractive yields with selective market recovery focused on mid to late-stage assets. VC investors are focused on funding companies through value creating product development milestones, and creating options to raise capital from a variety of sources: private markets, strategics and public investors.
What are the benefits of being an NVCA member?
Immense involvement in a community of like-minded professionals fostering collaboration and support within the venture ecosystem (entrepreneurs and investors).
Members gain invaluable access to networking opportunities, continuous learning, industry insights, and representation for policies that support and cultivate a favorable VC environment.
Sofinnova is also a proud supporter of VC university, a program that provides the opportunity for underrepresented individuals to learn fundamental investing principles and to gain mentorship and access to the VC world through this program.
What’s ahead for your firm in 2024?
At Sofinnova, we are funding scientific and medical innovation to develop tomorrow’s cures. Value creation driven by innovation across disease spectrums remains a priority as we seek to improve the lives of patients through science.
Our team will continue to partner with entrepreneurs and pharmaceutical companies to take transformative therapies from the lab to reach patients. We are excited to continue to support growth and diversity in our ecosystem with our Fellowship program for science graduates, currently in its fifth year, and continue to promote biotech leadership and entrepreneurship from under-represented groups.
We strive to build world-class companies that aspire to dramatically improve medical care and bring potential cures to patients.
