Vertex Ventures HC, a US-based venture capital firm, has hired Christine Brennan from MRL Venture Funds, the pharma-focused corporate venturing unit of US-listed drugs company Merck.
Brennan is now a managing director alongside Lori Hu in co-leading Vertex Ventures HC, an independent healthcare-focused venture fund within the worldwide Vertex Ventures fund network anchored by Singapore state-backed Temasek.
Hu said: “Her successful track record as a biotech investor, chief business officer and board member will be incredibly valuable as we evaluate new opportunities and guide our current portfolio companies. Furthermore, her base in Boston will enable Vertex to have a bi-coastal presence in another key innovation hub.”
Brennan added: “I am looking forward to investing in the tremendous biotech innovation that is happening right now, in addition to continuing to help our current portfolio companies work towards developing new treatments for patients.”
Vertex Ventures HC has raised $320m and made more than 20 investments, including cell therapy (Sonoma Biotherapeutics, ElevateBio and Indapta), novel biology (Palleon Pharmaceuticals), targeted oncology (Boundless Bio and Elevation Oncology), platform technologies (Obsidian Therapeutics and Bicycle Therapeutics), and therapeutic devices (Ivantis, acquired by Alcon, and Twelve, acquired by Medtronic).
Brennan had previously been a partner at MRL Ventures Fund from 2017.
Last year, MRL promoted her co-partner, Peter Dudek, to president and managing partner of the $500m CVC unit targeting transformational therapeutics and which is separate to Merck’s Global Health Innovation Fund run by William Taranto and David Stevenson for digital health.
Prior to MRL, where she was on the board of Alector, Entrada Therapeutics, Tallac Therapeutics and Therini Bio and an observer of Adagio, LifeMine Therapeutics, PAQ Therapeutics and Translate Bio, she had been a principal at the Novartis Venture Fund from 2013 to 2017 and chief business officer at Vitae Pharmaceuticals from 2010 to 2013.
Photo of Christine Brennan from Vertex.
