Drugs companies GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Genzyme have committed to the inaugural $85m healthcare fund raised by Longwood Founders Management.
Richard Aldrich, Michelle Dipp (pictured), and Christoph Westphal manage the fund. Dipp is also senior vice president of GSK’s Center of Excellence for External Drug Discovery, a role she took on after her then boss, Westphal, moved over in April last year to head the drugs company’s corporate venturing unit, SR One.
The two had joined GSK in 2007 when they sold Sirtris Pharmaceuticals to the UK-listed company for $720m. Aldrich was also a co-founder of Sirtis and chairman of advisory firm, RA Capital, after leaving Vertex Pharmaceuticals in 2001.
Longwood has already begun dealmaking. In February last year, Longwood made its first investment in Alnara Pharmaceuticals, a company it co-founded with Alexey Margolin, and which was promptly sold five months later to drugs group Eli Lilly for $180m in cash and $200m in potential performance fees.
In November, Longwood co-founded Verastem with Piyush Gupta, Eric Lander, and Robert Weinberg.
Longwood’s advisory board includes Peter Hutt (a former general counsel at the US drugs regulator), Paul Schimmel (co-founder of Alnylam), Phil Sharp (co-founder of Biogen and Alnylam), David Sinclair (co-founder of Sirtris), Moncef Slaoui (chairman of research and development at GSK), and Genzyme’s Christopher Walsh.