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Finance Watch: Three New Funds, Including Former Amgen R&D Head Harper's Next Venture

 
• By Mandy Jackson

Private Company Edition: Westlake Village BioPartners launched with $320m and Harper as a managing director; UK-based Ahren unveiled a $100m-plus "deep science" fund; and UCSD partnered with Deerfield to finance drug programs. In new financings, Allogene leads with $120m.

Finance Watch

The mystery is over: Former Amgen Inc. EVP-Research and Development Sean Harper, who said at the end of July that he was retiring to get involved with new company formation, is leaving the big biotech to be managing director at the new life science-focused venture capital firm Westlake Village BioPartners in Los Angeles, which launched on Sept. 5 with a $320m fund.

Harper will join managing director Beth Seidenberg – the former Amgen chief medical officer who most recently was a key biopharma start-up funder at the VC firm Kleiner Perkins – at Westlake in January after he wraps up his commitment at Amgen

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Finance Watch: Deerfield Closes $600m-Plus VC Fund; Gates Speeds Up Health Investments

 
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