From R&D to Venture Capital

John LaMattina, PhD, was the former Pfizer president of global R&D (Research and Development). He has now joined the Boston-based venture firm PureTech Ventures as senior partner. LaMattina spent 30 years at Pfizer and I wonder how many years he will spend at PureTech Ventures. Several members of the PureTech Ventures team are MIT graduates (if you're in Boston, that's going to be expected). Some of the associates and partners have PhDs or MDs. Considering a non-clinical career with a venture capital (VC) firm?

Here's a brief snippet about PureTech Ventures:

We specialize in company creation and early-stage investment in novel therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics, and research technologies. We focus on major unmet medical needs that have yet to be addressed by emerging science. Enlisting the world’s leading academic and industry experts, we identify novel technologies (often prior to publication) and create companies that drive those discoveries to commercially and clinically driven milestones. Once those milestones are achieved, we build out the leadership team, create syndicates for later stage financing rounds, and position the technology to make the broadest impact through public financing or acquisition.

Going back to Pfizer now: Pfizer is splitting its R&D operations into a biotherapeutics division which will be headed by Mikael Dolsten and a pharmatherapeutics division which will be headed by Martin Mackay.