Pureos Bioventures Expands Team with New Venture Partners

Pureos Bioventures, a venture capital company that supports private biotech startups developing innovative medicines, has added many venture partners to its team.

FREMONT, CA: Pureos Bioventures, a venture capital company that supports private biotech startups developing innovative medicines, has added many venture partners to its team. So far, the first-time fund has invested in 11 private biotech startups and has USD 205 million under management. The company is also a partner in BaseLaunch, a biotech startup incubator in Basel, Switzerland. Pureos Bioventures' first portfolio firms have already gone public or been taken over.

Dr. Dragan Grabulovski, Ian Metcalfe, and Dr. Roberto Iacone have joined the team as new venture partners as of September 1st. Covagen AG, a Swiss biotech business specializing in bispecific antibodies and antibody alternatives, has Dragan as its CSO and co-founder. In 2014, Covagen was taken over by Cilag GmbH International, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson's Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies. Dragan has been an independent counsellor to biotech startups, a coach at ETH Zurich and Innosuisse (the Swiss Innovation Agency), a board member, and an entrepreneur since 2015.

In 2020, Ian became the CEO of NovaGo Therapeutics. Ian was the Chief Operating Officer of Corlieve Therapeutics before joining NovaGo, which was taken over by uniQure in July 2021. 

Ian formerly worked at Roche and Nestl in various capacities, involving Investor Relations, Business Development/M & M&A, Global Product Strategy, and late-stage Pharma Development. Ian's previous experience includes running his own business, working in Berna Biotech's R&D division, and seeking money for Etna Biotech, a Sicilian startup.

Roberto is the CEO of Alentis Therapeutics and a physician-scientist (MD PhD) who has progressed many assets to the early stages of clinical development. He has extensive experience in rare diseases, fibrosis, immunology, oncology, and translational medicine and strategic planning. Before joining Alentis, Roberto was a leadership team member that took Black Diamond Therapeutics from creation to NASDAQ IPO via various financing rounds. Before that, he was the chief of Roche's rare disease research.

Managing Partners of Pureos Klaus Breiner, Dominik Escher, and Martin Munchbach stated: "We are very pleased to welcome Dragan, Ian and Roberto as our venture partners. They bring tremendous additional experience of building biotech companies to Pureos, which will help the fund to start up and foster our portfolio companies."