Life Science Industry Veteran Stephane Bancel Joins Flagship Ventures

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Flagship Ventures, a leading venture capital and venture creation firm focused on healthcare and sustainability, today announced the appointment of Stephane Bancel as a Senior Partner. In this role, Mr. Bancel will provide strategic counsel and support to portfolio companies.

In addition to working closely with companies in the Flagship portfolio, Mr. Bancel also serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Moderna Therapeutics, a Flagship VentureLabs™ - founded company.  Moderna is pioneering messenger RNA therapeutics™, an entirely new in vivo drug modality that produces human proteins or antibodies inside the patient, within the patient's cells. This allows the in vivo expression of virtually any therapeutic protein for intracellular or systemic action. He is also Executive Chairman of the board for BG Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ: BGMD), a Flagship portfolio company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel, biomarker-based diagnostics to improve patient outcomes and contain healthcare costs.

"Stephane brings with him a wealth of management experience and expertise in the development and commercialization of medical diagnostic tools and technologies as well as expertise in the pharmaceuticals industry," said Noubar Afeyan, Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Flagship Ventures.  Under Mr. Bancel's leadership, Moderna has entered into one of the largest preclinical biotech-pharma deals in the industry's 35 year history with AstraZeneca. The recently announced partnership agreement involves up to 40 options to drug products and $420M in up front and technology milestone payments. Dr. Afeyan added, "having worked together with Stephane for over three years now at BG Medicine and Moderna, I look forward to seeing his commercial mindset and strategic insights applied more broadly to Flagship's investment strategy as well as to the growth and success of our portfolio companies." 

Mr. Bancel said "What attracted me to Flagship Ventures was the team's depth of experience and knowledge in the life sciences industry, as well as the firm's unique philosophy and approach to realizing entrepreneurial innovation." He continued, "I look forward to building on Flagship's growing reputation as one of the preeminent innovators in the life sciences ecosystem."

Prior to joining Flagship, Mr. Bancel served as Chief Executive Officer of bioMerieux (NYSE Euronext: BIM.PA), a world leader in the diagnostics industry. During his five years leading the company, he accelerated the sales growth rate, enhanced its position as a global leader in clinical microbiology and re-accelerated its immunoassay franchise by focusing on high medical value biomarkers. Under his leadership, the company's market capitalization nearly doubled despite the broader economic downturn.

Previously, Mr. Bancel was Managing Director of Eli Lilly in Belgium and Executive Director of Global Manufacturing Strategy and Supply Chain at Eli Lilly in Indianapolis. He earned a Master of Engineering from Ecole Centrale Paris, a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In 2009, Mr. Bancel was elected a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He was elected Best CEO for Investor Relations in France in 2009 and was ranked #1 CEO in the Biotechnology sector according to the 2011 Thomson Reuters Pan European EXTEL Study.

About Flagship Ventures
Realizing entrepreneurial innovation is the mission of Flagship Ventures. The firm operates through two synergistic units: VentureLabs™ which invents and launches transformative companies, and Venture Capital, which finances and develops innovative, early-stage companies. Founded in 2000, and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Flagship Ventures manages over $900 million in capital. The Flagship team is active in three principal business sectors: therapeutics, health technologies and sustainability/clean technology. Past successful Flagship portfolio companies include:  Accuri Cytometers (acquired by Becton, Dickinson and Company), Adnexus (acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb), Hypnion (acquired by Eli Lilly), AVEO (NASDAQ: AVEO), BG Medicine (NASDAQ: BGMD), Tetraphase (NASDAQ: TTPH), Receptos (NASDAQ: RCPT) and Morphotek (acquired by Eisai).  Additional notable portfolio companies include:  AeroDesigns, Affinnova, Agios, BIND Therapeutics, Joule Unlimited, Quanterix, and Moderna Therapeutics.  For more information, please visit www.flagshipventures.com.

SOURCE Flagship Ventures