Overview

Gender

male

Investor Type

Investment Partner

Jean-François Formela is a partner and focuses on new advances in biology and drug discovery technologies as well as novel therapeutics.

He serves on the boards of Ataxion, Egalet (NASDAQ: EGLT), F-star, Intellia Therapeutics, Navitor, RaNA Therapeutics which he co-founded, Spero Therapeutics and ZappRx.

Jean-François has been involved in the formation of companies such as Adnexus (acquired by BMS), ArQule (NASDAQ: ARQL), Annovation Biopharma (acquired by The Medicines Company), Arteaus Therapeutics (acquired by Lilly), Cellzome (acquired by GSK), deCODE (NASDAQ: DCGN, acquired by Amgen), Exelixis (NASDAQ: EXEL), MorphoSys (Xetra: MOR.DE), NxStage (NASDAQ: NXTM) and SGX Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SGXP, acquired by Lilly). He was also an investor in Achillion (NASDAQ: ACHN), CoStim Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Novartis) and Horizon Pharma (NASDAQ: HZNP) as well as a board member of Biochem Pharma (NASDAQ: BCHE, acquired by Shire) and Novexel (acquired by AstraZeneca).

Jean-François joined Atlas Venture in 1993 to build the U.S. life sciences franchise. Prior to joining Atlas, Jean-François worked at Schering-Plough, where he directed U.S. Phase IV studies in all therapeutic areas. Before that, he was responsible for the marketing of Intron A, Schering-Plough’s alpha-interferon. Jean-François began his career as a medical doctor and practiced emergency medicine at Necker University Hospital in Paris.

Jean-François is a member of the Massachusetts General Hospital Research Advisory Council and a former trustee of the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art.

He received his MD from Paris University School of Medicine, and his MBA from Columbia University.