Sofinnova Partners Stays Optimistic on Biotech's Future
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What insights does Antoine Papiernik share about the future of biotech?
Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Bloomberg Intelligence Vanguards of Healthcare podcast. It is the last one of the year for me, but it is with somebody whom I've known for a long, long time. And it's a real pleasure to get back together, even if it's virtual at the minute. And these podcasters, you know, we speak with the leaders at the forefront of change in the healthcare industry and no one is closer to those changes than VCs, and no one's closer to those changes than VCs like Antoine that I've known for years. So my name is Sam Fazelli, and I'm a former biotech analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, which is the in-house research arm of Bloomberg. Now, I'm thrilled to welcome Antoine Papiernique, a managing partner at Sofinova Partners.
Plenty of stuff to talk about. The seven funds that the group runs, which are Many more than the first days that I remember Antoine from. I think probably Sofinova Capital was the first one, I guess. Sofinova is obviously a leading European life sciences venture capital firm founded in 1972. So it's slightly younger than me. Just in 2025, the group raised one and a half billion euros.
How does Sofinnova Partners leverage AI in biotech investments?
So combined with the group that I spoke with yesterday, few weeks ago that was for beyond this these are these two firms along with eqt uh friends there and quite a few other vcs are at the forefront of leading investments into biotech and they are a european-based healthcare vc but obviously not just europe so almost half of that money that was raised went to the uh sofinova capital six eleven fund sorry eleven wow Over 500 companies backed since 1972. Currently over 100 in the portfolio companies in the list. And a total of about 4 billion euros under management. So things have clearly gone in the right direction and very well for Antoine. Welcome, Antoine. It's really nice to have you with us.
Thank you, Sam. It's a pleasure to see you. Did you want to add a little bit? Well, yeah, just to remember indeed that we've met 25 or so years ago. And at the time, I joined this firm 28 years ago. And at the time, we had one strategy. That was the capital strategy that was investing out of its fund too when I joined in 97, which was a 47 million euro fund.
What challenges does the biotech industry face today?
And I have to say, we did, in hindsight, miracles with very small amounts of money. but we're also very very happy that we now have a lot more money so from this 47 million euro fund and we had a fund one that was 38 million euros so less than 100 million basically to do what we do and indeed today we've grown in multiple ways but just capital 11 being at 650 million euro you can see how much more we can do with a lot more money i think you know things have changed in biotech we need More money to get to where you want to go, particularly if you want to reach your ultimate goal. And super happy to be in this position today, despite the environment. I'm sure we'll talk about the environment, but despite this, you know, I'm the optimist and I think, you know, we've gone a long way in Europe and we're right that way.
Yeah. I mean, you can't not be an optimist when you work in biotech, right? Because it's feast and famine at times. And also, you need that, I think, in order to see through the risks and look at the potential. And of course, you do capital management in a sensible way to try and get the risks taken care of as much as possible. But that is what biotech is. And I have to say that I think Antoine is one of the most optimistic people that I remember sitting on panels with, etc. So it always was a pleasure to have those conversations. We didn't always agree, but I think a lot of it was more for making the panels more interesting.
How is the pharma patent cliff impacting biotech investments?
So where does Sofinova sit in the venture community in terms of approach? What is special, if anything, about the group and in terms of the way you look at things?
Yeah, so our motto is that we invest in people and science. And of course, people often count a lot in this equation. But I would say most investors would say the same, people and science. I think the way we've grown is that we have
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What insights does Antoine Papiernik share about the future of biotech?
0:25–1:32
2
How does Sofinnova Partners leverage AI in biotech investments?
1:32–2:38
3
What challenges does the biotech industry face today?
2:38–4:04
4
How is the pharma patent cliff impacting biotech investments?
4:04–5:15
5
What role does AI play in drug discovery according to the guests?
5:15–6:52
6
How does the European biotech landscape compare to the US?
6:52–8:07
7
What are the expectations for M&A activity in biotech for 2026?
8:07–9:03
8
What potential innovations in biotech are anticipated in the near future?
9:03–56:52
Speakers
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