Elliott Sigal Joins NEA As Venture Partner And Senior Advisor

CHEVY CHASE, Md. and MENLO PARK, Calif., Jan. 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA), a leading global venture capital firm, today announced the appointment of Elliott Sigal, M.D., Ph.D. as Venture Partner and Senior Advisor. Dr. Sigal is a former Executive Vice President and Director for Bristol-Myers Squibb. He served as the company's Chief Scientific Officer and President of R&D from 2004-2013. He brings to NEA more than 25 years of experience spanning drug discovery, drug development, corporate strategy and general management.

"Dr. Sigal is among the most accomplished, respected and forward-thinking executives in the pharmaceutical industry, and we are thrilled to have him join the NEA team," said David Mott, NEA General Partner and head of the firm's Healthcare practice. "Dr. Sigal will be an invaluable resource to our partnership and to the companies in our current portfolio. He brings extraordinary insights in key areas such as the use of genetic information to develop precision therapeutics, state of the art clinical and regulatory strategy, and extensive relationships across pharma, biotech and academia. His therapeutic expertise also spans everything from oncology and infectious disease through metabolic and cardiovascular disease. Elliott brings an exceptional wealth of knowledge to our healthcare practice."

Among Dr. Sigal's accomplishments in various therapeutic areas was building Bristol-Myers Squibb research into a lead position in the promising area of immuno-oncology. He has frequently been lauded for building one of the most productive and innovative organizations in the industry, with 14 products brought to market under his leadership and an average cost of new drug approval significantly lower than other large pharmaceutical companies.¹ As noted in The Wall Street Journal², he "comes out well ahead in every metric, despite his R&D spend being a little over half that of his biggest rivals."

A principal architect of Bristol-Myers Squibb's successful biopharma transformation strategy, Dr. Sigal was instrumental in increasing R&D productivity, developing the company's strategy in biologics, and acquiring external innovation (best known as the String of Pearls initiative). As a result, he became well acquainted with the life sciences startup and venture capital ecosystem and sought to deepen his engagement with that entrepreneurial community upon retiring.

"There is tremendous entrepreneurial energy and innovation in the life sciences sector today, and NEA is right in the thick of it, as one of the industry's largest and most diversified healthcare investors," said Dr. Sigal. "The firm's scale and success over nearly four decades translate to a premier portfolio—companies with the potential to deliver new medicines, improve patient outcomes, and transform healthcare as we know it. I'm excited to help fuel a new generation of medicines and treatments across a broad range of therapeutic areas and patient populations."

In addition to his role at NEA, Dr. Sigal serves on the boards of directors of the Mead Johnson Nutrition Company and the Melanoma Research Alliance and is a consultant to various biotechnology companies. During his 16 years at Bristol Myers-Squibb, he held leadership positions in both Research and in Development. Previously, Dr. Sigal served as Vice President, Research and Development and later CEO of genomics firm Mercator Genetics, and prior to that held several positions of increasing responsibility at pharmaceutical company Syntex.

Dr. Sigal received his M.D. from the University of Chicago in 1981 and trained in Internal Medicine and Pulmonary Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He received his research training at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF and served on the faculty of the UCSF Department of Medicine from 1988-1992. Prior to medical school, Dr. Sigal studied industrial engineering at Purdue University, where he received a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D.

About NEA
New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a leading venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With approximately $13 billion in committed capital, NEA invests in information technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company's lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm's long track record of successful investing includes more than 175 portfolio company IPOs and more than 300 acquisitions. In the U.S., NEA has offices in Menlo Park, CA; New York, NY; Chicago, IL; Boston, MA; and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. In addition, New Enterprise Associates (India) Pvt. Ltd. has offices in Bangalore and Mumbai, India and New Enterprise Associates (Beijing), Ltd. has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China. For additional information, visit www.nea.com.

¹ Source: "ANALYSIS: Measuring R&D success and myth," Christopher Bowe, Informa-Scrip Group (Dec. 19, 2012)

² Source: "Drumroll: The Best R&D Chief In The Pharma World," Tom Gara, The Wall Street Journal (Dec. 18, 2012)

SOURCE New Enterprise Associates, Inc.