Jayson Punwani, formerly a partner at Japan-headquartered pharmaceutical firm Takeda’s corporate venturing unit, Takeda Ventures, has joined life sciences investor Abingworth in the same role.
Punwani will be based at Abingworth’s Menlo Park office in California, but will work with its transatlantic team across all locations. He will focus on investments in life science-adjacent companies across all stages of development.
Prior to joining Abingworth, Punwani had been interim CEO at a company called Vertuis. He joined Takeda Ventures as investment director in 2017, and his deals while at the unit included Xilio Therapeutics, StrideBio, VelosBio, Coho Therapeutics and Armagen.
Punwani had previously spent more than six years as principal at life science-focused venture capital firm Pappas Capital. He also co-founded molecular glue drug developer Coho Therapeutics in 2019 during his stint at Takeda.
