French Firm Incubates Italian Biotechnology

Sofinnova Partners, a Paris-based life sciences venture capital firm, has established a business to translate intellectual property into biotech start-ups in Italy. Sofinnova claims its new business, named BiovelocITA, is the first of its kind in the country. Sofinnova and a group of private investors have seeded BiovelocITA with more than $6 million. BiovelocITA is evaluating more than 10 projects including some from TTFactor, an organization representing major Italian research institutes. “There is a window of opportunity in Italy: The science is excellent, and the pool of entrepreneurs is growing,” says Graziano Seghezzi, a Sofinnova partner.