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VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Investor Spotlight: M Ventures
DTSTART:20190425T163000
DTEND:20190425T183000
DTSTAMP:20260509T161131Z
UID:1abc3d46b234c5464cff74c5bdec97f270d9c0dea0c8a599e56ac7eb
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Jasper Bos\, PhD and Francois Conquet\, PhD\n\nWould you lik
 e to learn about the career opportunities in the biotech companies and sta
 rt-ups around you?\n\nThe EPFL SV Postdoc association\, in collaboration w
 ith the startup incubator BaseLaunch\, has the pleasure to invite you to
  the Merck Ventures career event for life scientists\, taking place Thurs
 day the 25th of April 2019 at the SV faculty.\nThis Life Science event w
 ill have Dr. Jasper Bos\, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of t
 he M Ventures Healthcare fund\, presenting an overview of the fund\, its i
 nvestment strategy and primary areas of interest as well as some interesti
 ng case studies.\nA special example of the M Ventures investment strategy 
 is Prexton Therapeutics\, a Swiss-based biopharmaceutical company launched
  in 2012. We are also delighted that Dr. Francois Conquet\, CEO and founde
 r of Prexton\, talks about the exciting story of the company’s powerful 
 discovery platform used to target specific novel compounds focused on the 
 treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Francois will also share his “lesson
 s learned along the way”.\nMerck Ventures is the strategic\, corporate v
 enture capital arm of Merck KGaA. Its mandate is to invest in innovative t
 echnologies and products with the potential to significantly impact Merck
 ‘s core business areas. From their headquarters in Amsterdam and offices
  in the US and Israel\, M Ventures invests globally in transformational id
 eas driven by great entrepreneurs. The fund takes an active role in its po
 rtfolio companies and teams up with entrepreneurs and co-investors to tran
 slate innovation towards commercial success. Merck Ventures has a signific
 ant focus on early-stage investing and company creation including the crea
 tion of spin-offs to leverage Merck‘s science and technology base.\n\nPl
 ease join us at this event on April 25th 2019\, 16:30 to 18:30\, at Roo
 m SV1717\, SV building\, EPFL\, Lausanne.\n                    
   Program\n 16:30            Door opening\n17:00           
   Dr. Jasper Bos\, Senior Vice President and Managing Director\, M Ventur
 es\n17:30             Q&A\n17:40             Dr. Francois Co
 nquet\, Prexton Therapeutics\n18:10             Q&A\n18:20      
        Networking Apero\n\nParticipation to the event is free of charg
 e\; however\, your registration till 24th April is mandatory.\n\nSpeaker
 s\n\nJasper Bos\, PhD\n\nJasper Bos joined Merck’s previous biopharma fu
 nd of M Ventures in 2009 and transitioned to Senior Vice President and Man
 aging Director M Ventures in 2019. At M Ventures\, Jasper Bos supported (a
 mongst others) the early successful investments and exits in ObsEva (NASDA
 Q)\, EpiTherapeutics (sale to Gilead)\, and was an initiator of Prexton Th
 erapeutics\, which was acquired early 2018 by Luendbeck for close to $1\,1
 00 Billion\, Calypso Biotech\, Inthera\, Metabomed and Asceneuron. He hold
 s a PhD in Pharmacy from the University of Groningen\, the Netherlands\, a
 nd has previously worked in private equity and at the Netherlands Vaccine 
 Institute. Jasper published over 35 articles on health economics\, vaccine
 s and mathematical modelling.\n\nFrancois Conquet\, PhD\n\nFrançois Conqu
 et defended his PhD in 1991\, at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and did hi
 s Post-doc at Genentech. After that\, he joined the GSK Research Institute
  of Geneva where he worked as a scientist in CNS research until 2001. Then
 \, he left GSK to found Addex Pharmaceuticals in Geneva\, where he stayed 
 CEO until 2005. Addex is a Biotech company dedicated to the discovery of n
 ovel treatments for CNS diseases. Then\, he joined Merck Serono as Directo
 r\, Early Stage Licensing. In April 2012\, at the closing of the Geneva si
 te of Merck Serono\, François founded Prexton Therapeutics as CEO. Prexto
 n was a biotech dedicated to the development of an mGluR4 compound for Par
 kinson’s disease. Prexton raised 41M€ from 2012 until 2018. In March 2
 018\, Prexton has been acquired by Lundbeck for 905M€.
LOCATION:SV 1717 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SV%201717
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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