Venture Capital · Profile from Venture Capital Research Companion
OrbiMed Advisors LLC
The New York healthcare specialist that began in 1989 as a pharmaceutical-analyst money manager and grew into one of the world's largest dedicated healthcare investors, running public equity, venture/private equity, royalty-and-credit and Asia funds side by side — a "full capital stack" model that lets it back a company from Series A through IPO and into structured debt.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1989, New York, as Mehta & Isaly; OrbiMed Advisors formed in 1998 when the founding partners split
- Founders
- Samuel D. Isaly and Viren Mehta (both former pharmaceutical analysts at S.G. Warburg); Michael Sheffery and Arvind Desai are also cited as OrbiMed founding partners
- Headquarters
- New York (Citigroup Center / 601 Lexington Avenue); offices in San Francisco, London, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mumbai and Herzliya (Israel)
- Ownership / structure
- Private, partner-owned asset manager (SEC-registered adviser); ~21 partners and ~100–130 staff (2023, firm-cited)
- Leadership (2026)
- Run by a partnership/management committee since 2018; key partners include Carl Gordon and Jonathan Silverstein (global private equity), Sven Borho and Trevor Polischuk (public equity), Geoffrey Hsu (public equity / Biotech Growth Trust), Carter Neild, Peter Thompson and Tal Zaks (joined 2021) (verify current titles)
- AUM / capital raised
- ~$17–18bn (firm-cited, 2021–2024); $3.5bn raised across three private funds in March 2021 and $4.3bn+ across three private funds in October 2023
- Stage focus
- Venture (seed to crossover) and growth private equity in biotech, medtech, diagnostics and services; public healthcare equities; royalty and structured credit; Asia (China, India) venture and growth
- Signature investments
- Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Intellia Therapeutics, AbCellera, Edgewise Therapeutics, Corvus Pharmaceuticals, Natera (royalty/credit), Acceleron, Receptos, Inspire Medical Systems, Glaukos, Audentes, Principia, RayzeBio, Alector, Arvinas; instructive failures: ViewRay (Chapter 11, 2023), Foamix/Menlo/VYNE
7 deals and moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2009
ViewRay
Series B
2012
Intercept Pharmaceuticals
Series C
2013
Natera
Royalty-Backed Credit Facility
2014
Corvus Pharmaceuticals
Founding Series A / B
2015
Intellia Therapeutics
Series B
2017
Edgewise Therapeutics
Founding / Series A
2020
AbCellera
Series B