NEWS RELEASE CONTACTS:
Sherrill Neff, Quaker BioVentures, (voice) 215-988-6811
Tim O’Brien, O’Brien Communications, (voice) 412-854-8845
Charlotte Rapkin, Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, (voice) 412-201-7483
Philadelphia, January 27, 2003 – Quaker BioVentures, a $200 million Pennsylvania-based life science venture capital firm, announced today that it has decided to locate its Pittsburgh office in the new headquarters of the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG) and to become the PLSG’s first tenant. The PLSG announced separately today that its new headquarters would be located in the Cellomics Building in Pittsburgh, along with an incubator facility for Pittsburgh-area life sciences start-ups. Sherrill Neff, Managing Partner of Quaker BioVentures, commented: “Quaker BioVentures is committed to a deep, long-term presence in Pittsburgh. We founded Quaker BioVentures last year with the intention of being the premier statewide life sciences fund, with offices in both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. We are very excited about the acceleration of life sciences commercialization activity in Pittsburgh, being led by UPMC, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. We are delighted to show our confidence in the region’s growing life sciences industry by becoming the first tenant of the PLSG. We expect that our co-location with the PLSG will significantly enhance the flow of new life sciences business ideas in the Pittsburgh area. It has been a pleasure to work with Dennis Yablonsky, the PLSG’s President and Chief Executive Officer, and his staff as a member of their Technology Advisory Board, and we look forward to having a major impact on the region.” Dennis Yablonsky, Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are very pleased to welcome Quaker BioVentures to Pittsburgh. Quaker BioVentures will be the largest statewide venture firm focused on life sciences in Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic Region, and we are committed to working closely with them. They will bring a substantial pool of experienced life sciences venture capital into Western Pennsylvania.”
About Quaker BioVentures
Quaker BioVentures is the sixth private equity fund sponsored by Ira Lubert, whose organization has $2.0 billion in real estate, private equity and venture capital funds under management. In addition to Mr. Lubert, the Managing Partners of Quaker BioVentures include Mr. Sherrill Neff, formerly President and Chief Operating Officer of Neose Technologies, Inc., and Dr. Brenda Gavin, formerly President of S.R. One, the venture capital subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline. Quaker expects to hold its first closing within the next several weeks.
About the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse
The Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse is a partnership of the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, the region's life sciences industry, economic development organizations and government, formed to position the Pittsburgh region as a global leader in biotechnology. It grew out of an original plan known as BioVenture developed by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University to position the region as an international center in the biosciences. The PLSG is designed to accelerate the growth of the life sciences sector in the Pittsburgh region, focusing on: drug discovery tools and targets, medical devices and diagnostics, tissue/organ engineering and regenerative medicine, and therapeutic strategies for neurological and psychiatric disorders.
