Dr. Michael Powell is a scientist and entrepreneur at heart. As a pilot, trapshooter, fisherman, skier and dinosaur hunter, Mike is the Indiana Jones of Sofinnova Ventures.

A dinosaur hangs from his office, where he is the Managing Director of a venture firm, which focuses both on life sciences and information technology. But that is another story!

In his 20 years of pharmaceutical development experience, Mike has worked on close to 20 clinical products and authored almost 100 papers and books—including an 1,100-page treatise on vaccine design.

Prior to joining Sofinnova Ventures, Mike was Group Leader of Drug Delivery at Genentech (1990-97) where his focus was developing new therapeutics. In 1987 he was part of the founding team of Cytel; as Director of Product Development, he was responsible for the company's early growth that culminated in a successful IPO. Before this he was Scientist and Project Team Leader at Syntex Research, where he held several positions that provided an appreciation and overview of the many aspects of traditional drug development. Mike had the honor of being the first scientist from the biotechnology industry to be elected a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. He is Adjunct Professor at the University of Kansas, an Editorial Board Member of J. Pharm. Sci., a Scientific Advisor to the Controlled Release Society, and a Board Member for AVAC (AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition).

He received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Toronto in 1981, and completed his post-doctorate work in Bio-organic Chemistry at the University of California, where he was subsequently a faculty member (1981-84).

When Mike is not busy building companies, he is off flying to a remote place in the desert where he loves to fly fish. He is an adventurer, a risk taker, a "sole" man, as well as a soul man.

“Sofinnova Ventures”