Pontifax Management II L.P. and Roche Form Strategic Cooperation to Identify and Develop Pharmaceutical Innovations from Israel

Strategic Insights

Jun 23, 2009 — 1 min read

Pontifax Management II L.P., the General Partner of the Pontifax Funds, a venture capital fund specializing in Israel's life science sector, has entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with the Swiss-based healthcare company Roche. The agreement aims to identify and develop pharmaceutical innovations from across Israel, leveraging Roche's vast resources and Pontifax's local management expertise. This collaboration will focus on two primary activities: investing in seed stage companies and biotechnology clusters.

Key Takeaways:

Pontifax will identify ventures and technologies from academia, seed level projects, and later-stage companies in Israel to strengthen Roche's R&D portfolio.
Roche and Pontifax will provide financial support to selected ventures, with Roche offering access to its resources in scientific knowledge, drug development, regulation, clinical studies, manufacturing, and marketing expertise.
Pontifax will provide management support to the selected ventures, while Roche will assess investment opportunities and offer support through its vast resources.
The collaboration will focus on two primary activities: seed stage companies and biotechnology clusters.
The agreement highlights the strategic value of Israeli life science start-ups and the commitment of Pontifax to nurturing and advancing science-driven companies.

Statistics:

The Pontifax Funds manage two funds with aggregate commitments of approximately $120 million.
Pontifax has a portfolio of companies such as Protalix, Aposense, Collplant, Macrocure, and Biomedix, the parent company of the Meytav and ATI incubators.
Roche will attend the "Israel Biomed" conference in June 2009 to meet with potential Israeli start-ups and establish investment opportunities.

Sources:

Pontifax Management II L.P. press release
Roche press release
Israel Biomed conference website: http://www2.kenes.com/biomed/pages/home.aspx
Biotech Week, "Israel's Pontifax Partners with Roche to Identify and Develop Pharmaceutical Innovations", June 2009

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