November 2023

We are delighted to announce that RiverVest Senior Associate Pascal Krotee, Ph.D. has been named a 2023 Life Science Catalyst Award winner by Biocom California. The Catalyst Award celebrates 10 of "the most inspiring and driven young minds who are sparking meaningful change to human health through research, discovery, and entrepreneurship in the California life science industry."

Based in RiverVest's San Diego office, Pascal is known for her insightful and rigorous due diligence on prospective portfolio companies in both the biopharmaceutical and medical device sectors and for being a trusted colleague. She provides key operational support for RiverVest’s portfolio companies and is a board member at Bluejay Therapeutics and a board observer at Biolinq.



Pascal earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology at UCLA and a B.S. in developmental and cell biology with a minor in business management from UC Irvine. She combines that training with her natural analytical abilities and her varied experiences in venture capital to be a highly-valued member of our team and an important part of RiverVest’s future.

Please join us in congratulating Pascal on her well-deserved recognition.

Illustration by Bonum Therapeutics

RiverVest portfolio company Good Therapeutics, Inc., founded in 2016 by John Mulligan, Ph.D., was acquired by Roche in 2022 for $250 million upfront plus potential milestone payments. Even better, Mulligan and his colleagues spun out their platform – and the ability to mine it for innovative drugs to fight cancer and other diseases – into Bonum Therapeutics, also a RiverVest portfolio company.

Bonum’s emerging class of regulated protein therapeutics, which are designed to deliver potent biological activity only where needed, could be a huge win for patients fighting cancer and other diseases. We discuss the Roche acquisition and what’s next for Bonum in RiverVest’s case study on Good Therapeutics.

Mitochondria are little power factories inside almost every cell in the human body where

food we eat and oxygen we breathe are converted into energy

Patient advocacy groups are crucial to the development of drug therapeutics that are most impactful for the patient. For example, patient-derived data often include quality-of-life priorities that researchers don’t anticipate.

In RiverVest's latest "Expert Insight," we explore the role of patient advocacy groups in therapeutic drug development for patients with rare diseases. Learn how one RiverVest portfolio company is tackling orphan diseases by listening to the experts: the patients and families who live with the disease every day.

Featured are the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation, Europe's The Lily Foundation, and Reneo Pharmaceuticals.

Read the article here.

Alagille syndrome is a rare genetic condition occurring in 1 in 30,000 children.

When genetic testing revealed that their infant daughter, Kira, was suffering from an incurable, life-threatening liver disease, the O’Shea family was desperate for help. They began enrolling Kira in clinical trials, including a disease-modifying therapy developed by Mirum Pharmaceuticals, a RiverVest portfolio company co-founded by our Managing Director Niall O’Donnell, Ph.D.

Mirum’s treatment for Alagille Syndrome is a minimally absorbed ileal bile acid transporter (IBAT) inhibitor called Livmarli® that is now on the market and dramatically improving quality of life for patients and their families.

●    Watch the PBS documentary here.

●    Read the Mirum success story here.

At RiverVest, we passionately believe in improving the lives of patients like Kira O’Shea and supporting biotech entrepreneurs like Mirum’s CEO, Chris Peetz. We can only achieve these goals by earning and maintaining the trust of our investors.

Thank you for believing in RiverVest and trusting our approach to science, strategy, and innovation.

For the latest news, be sure to visit the RiverVest website and follow us on LinkedIn.

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RiverVest Venture Partners is a leading life science venture capital firm focused on improving the lives of patients, supporting entrepreneurs, and earning the trust of investors through science, strategy, and innovation.