Jonathan Palmer

Thank you so much for joining us for our latest episode.

And please make sure to click the follow button on your favorite podcast app or website so you never miss a discussion with the leaders in healthcare innovation.

I'm Jonathan Palmer, and you've been listening to the Vanguards of Healthcare podcast by Bloomberg Intelligence.

Until next time, take care.

Welcome to another episode of Bloomberg Intelligence's Vanguards of Healthcare podcast, where we speak with the leaders at the forefront of change in the healthcare industry.

My name is Jonathan Palmer, and I'm a healthcare analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, the in-house research arm of Bloomberg.

We're very excited to have Bill Toronto, President and General Partner of the Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, joining us today.

Bill's been overseeing the fund since its founding in 2010.

He previously spent 18 years at Johnson & Johnson, including time in its venture arm, the J&J Development Corp.

And in a previous life, he was also an investment banker.

Welcome to the podcast, Bill.

Well, why don't we start at a very high level with, you know, the background behind GHI and where you kind of sit in the venture community?

Yeah, that was a great overview, Bill.

I mean, I guess if we rewind a little bit to the founding of the fund, you know, how did the pitch go and what was Merck's appetite to actually, you know, create a venture like this?

And how has it, I guess, maybe evolved that vision over the last 15 plus years?

That's great.

There's a lot to unpack there.

Maybe just rewinding a little bit, you know, when you made that switch around 2016, was there one investment you made that was a really standout use case that kind of redefined that strategy that was a big win early on?

And then I guess I would also be curious, you know, you talked about the PE overlay.

Is there an example there that you can give us of how that's worked as well?