Venture capital scouting
Edward Kliphuis on his internship at Merck Serono, May 2010.
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“From October 1, 2009 till March 31, 2010 I did my internship at Merck Serono Ventures (MSVC) in Geneva, Switzerland. The goal of my internship was to learn about the business side of bio-pharmaceutical science, as well as about a big pharma organization and the way different divisions interact within such an organization. By actively pursuing these goals, my time in Geneva has been a great success. By actively seeking contact with different divisions in the Merck Serono organization, I also learnt more about marketing, legal, IP and R&D processes.
I have worked in the MSVC team as an investment analyst. My job comprised a wide variety of activities. One of them was reviewing investment proposals from third parties seeking venture capital. Typically these are early stage bio-tech companies seeking financing to progress their early stage company to the next level. When, from a first review of the information, interest was raised within the MSVC team, I set up calls with the companies to learn more about their science and their business models.
At first I only participated in these calls, but later on I got the opportunity to take the lead on my own calls. For this purpose I have also participated in face-to-face meetings with companies and relevant divisions within the Merck Serono organization to gauge interest for investment proposals.
Additionally, I have participated in a corporate finance project, involving the valuation of the Merck KgaA biopharmaceutical minority participation portfolio; I was part of the negotiations team for two ongoing licensing deals, both of significant deal-value; I have done externalization deals - where clinical compounds that are not strategically to Merck Serono anymore, are out-licensed to third parties - and I have been involved in valuation model creation, financial analyzes and portfolio analyzes of various venture capital funds and companies.
Looking back I can say I’ve had a very dynamic and diverse internship. Both my background in Bio- Pharmaceutical Siences and in Science Based Business proved to be of great value for understanding the work I was involved in. This allowed me to quickly take on more responsibility and even get more out of my internship than my pre-set goals.
I would recommend a similar internship to anyone, and I can truly say that Merck Serono Ventures provides SBB-students with one of the most enabling and challenging environments possible.”
After graduation in May 2010, Edward turned back to Geneva to start his first job at Merck Serono Ventures.
Find more information on SBB internships and more internship experiences on our website.
