Michael Powell, PhD
General Partner
Mike has more than 25 years of pharmaceutical development experience, and he has focused interest in clinical-stage product companies, particularly in the oncology, endocrine, and neurology areas. He joined Sofinnova Ventures as a General Partner in 1997 as a member of the Life Science investment team. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Mike worked on 20 clinical products and authored almost 100 papers and books, including an 1,000–page treatise on vaccine design. Mike was the initial investor in: Actelion (SWX: ATLN), InterMune (Nasdaq: ITMN), Anesiva (Nasdaq: ANSV), Orexigen Therapeutics (Nasdaq: OREX), Seattle Genetics (Nasdaq: SGEN), Threshold Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: THLD), and Trius Therapeutics (Nasdaq: TSRX), as well as several private companies such as: Alvine, Ascenta and Intellikine (acquired by Millennium/Takeda).
Mike is currently Board President of AVAC (AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition) in NYC, a past Advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a past Strategic Advisor to One World Health, and a Founding Venture Advisory Board member of the IAVI (International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) Innovation Fund. He also serves on the University of Kansas board of IAMI (Institute for the Advancement of Medical Innovation), and the University of Minnesota’s CPD (Committee for Pharmaceutical Development). He flies too much, but he loves it.
Mike was Group Leader of Drug Delivery at Genentech (1990–97) where his focus was developing new therapeutics. In 1987 he was part of the founding team of Cytel; as Director of Product Development he was responsible for the company\\\'s early growth which culminated in a successful IPO. Before this he was Scientist and Project Team Leader at Syntex Research. Mike had the honor of being the first scientist from the biotechnology industry to be elected a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. He was also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Kansas, an Editorial Board member of J. Pharm. Sci., and a Scientific Advisor to the Controlled Release Society.
He received his PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Toronto in 1981, and completed his post-doctorate work in Bioorganic Chemistry at the University of California, where he was subsequently a faculty member (1981–84).
Assistant: Nora Martin. Email: nora(at)sofinnova.com.
Contact
powell(at)sofinnova.com
(650) 681-8425
