J.P. Morgan Asset Management launched a new life sciences private equity team, which will be called Life Sciences Private Capital. The new team will invest in both early and growth stage healthcare companies across multiple strategies aligned to specific market opportunities, with a focus on novel therapeutics and technologies in several target areas, including genetic medicine, oncology, neurodegenerative diseases, rare diseases, autoimmunity, AI/ML platforms, metabolic diseases and neuropsychology.
The new team will leverage JPMorgan Chase’s scale, resources, data assets and healthcare expertise and sit within J.P. Morgan Private Capital, a growth equity and private credit investment platform.
J.P. Morgan Asset Management hired Dr. Stephen Squinto as chief investment officer and managing partner of the new Life Sciences Private Capital team. Squinto joined J.P. Morgan Asset Management from OrbiMed Advisors and has more than 30 years of experience in the biotechnology company building and investing space, having co-founded and built multiple biotechnology companies, including Alexion Pharmaceuticals and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, where he acted as a scientific founder.
Joining Squinto as co-managing partners of the investment strategy are Dr. Gaurav Gupta and Anya Schiess. Gupta founded life science investment firm Ascendant BioCapital and was previously involved in private equity investments at OrbiMed Advisors. Schiess has more than 25 years of experience in healthcare investing and most recently was co-founder and general partner of Healthy Ventures.
“Our new Life Sciences Private Capital team combines some of the industry’s most revered biotech investors, operators and founders with J.P. Morgan’s extensive healthcare ecosystem to capture compelling investment opportunities in the biotech sector, which is on the cusp of a golden age of therapeutic innovation,” Brian Carlin, CEO of J.P. Morgan Private Capital, said. “Through Steve, Gaurav and Anya’s deep company-building experience, the team will bring a unique ability to partner with portfolio companies and add significant operational value beyond financial investment.”
“I’m thrilled to join J.P. Morgan to launch the Life Sciences Private Capital team. Our major focus will be to offer our investors a differentiated investment platform that harnesses our deep operational expertise to act as true partners to the companies we invest in, from building strong leadership teams, guiding early drug discovery efforts, designing clinical development programs and navigating the regulatory environment through to commercial launch strategies,” Squinto, said. “As advances in genomics, biomarkers and data science converge, we are seeing firsthand the transformative impact that biomedical innovation can offer to patients at all stages of life and we expect much more to come in the next decade. J.P. Morgan’s existing presence in the healthcare sector will give us a significant sourcing advantage as we seek to identify innovative and transformative therapeutics companies.”
In addition to hiring Squinto, Gupta and Schiess, J.P Morgan Asset Management also attracted a group of strategic advisors who will help guide the investment strategy, help to source investment opportunities and provide operational expertise to J.P. Morgan’s portfolio companies. The strategic advisors include:
- Laurie Glimcher, M.D. – President and CEO, Dana Farber Cancer Institute
- Jeffrey Leiden, M.D., Ph.D. – Executive Chairman, Vertex Pharmaceuticals
- Frederic Moll, M.D. – Chief Development Officer, J&J Medical Devices Companies
- Stephen Oesterle, M.D. – Former Senior Vice President of Medicine and Technology, Medtronic
- Robert Stockman – Former Chairman, REVA Medical
“We continue to see significant investment opportunities across private markets and the launch of our new Life Sciences Private Capital team is the next step in the evolution of our J.P. Morgan Private Capital platform, harnessing the unparalleled scale and resources of JPMorgan Chase to complement our existing growth equity capabilities across consumer, technology and sustainability sectors,” George Gatch, CEO of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said.