Reza Halse, president of US-listed pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co’s MRL Ventures investment vehicle, has joined healthcare-focused investment manager RA Capital Management.
Halse has reconnected with Joshua Resnick, an inaugural managing partner at MRL Ventures, who joined RA Capital in 2018 to set up its venture funds after a few years in the interim as a partner at venture capital firm SV Life Sciences.
RA Capital has hired Halse as a partner, having closed its second venture fund, RA Capital Nexus Fund II, at $461m in October 2020. Its first fund closed in July 2019 with about $300m and funded 59 companies, 15 of which have since floated or been acquired.
Halse joined Merck’s MSD London Innovation Hub in 2015, also becoming a partner at MRL Ventures, which targets startups in therapeutics and complements Merck’s other main corporate VC unit, Global Health Innovation fund, which is run by William Taranto.
Halse’s board responsibilities at MRL included Caraway, LifeMine, Lava, Imago and Spero, with exits for Alector, MiRagen and Visterra. He joined Merck in 2015 after three years as a partner at Partners Healthcare where his board seats had included Editas and Adheron.
