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BA Venture Partners expands its biotech team

BA Venture Partners, the venture arm of Bank of America, has announced three new team members, two of whom will focus solely on biotech opportunities. Nicola Campbell joins as a biotech principal and Grant Dollens will be a biotech associate. John Cherniavsky joins as a software associate.

‘Nicola's background and experience further strengthens our ability to evaluate companies in this sector from the perspective of people who have hands-on experience in just about every aspect of a biotechnology company,' said Lou Bock, managing director at BA Venture Partners.

She joins from life sciences merchant bank Burrill & Company, where she was a director.

The appointment reflects a growing trend of venture firms building up their biotech practice. The sector has been one of the few to enjoy an increase in investment activity over the past eighteen months, making a striking contrast with the fortunes of the broader venture industry.

BA Venture Partners' biotechnology investments span all stages of the company life cycle and focus on drug developing companies developing therapeutics in areas such as oncology, cardiovascular and neurology. 

The attractiveness of the biotech sector is a function both of a growing conviction about the commercial prospects for the industry and of an ongoing exodus from all the sectors discredited by the implosion of the TMT bubble. Many institutional investors, although reticent about venture investing in general, have been more willing to commit to biotech funds. 

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