Avoro Capital Advisors Research
Investment Thesis
Avoro Capital Advisors (formerly venBio Select Advisor) is a global life sciences investment firm headquartered in New York that provides "financial and intellectual support over the investment's lifecycle" to biotechnology companies. The firm describes its approach as "intellectually curious," aiming to identify "unique or mispriced investment opportunities" in a biotech sector it views as being reshaped by large pharma's active pursuit of growth through partnerships and M&A. Avoro invests across the full company lifecycle, from pre-clinical private financings through mature, commercial-stage public companies, spanning both public and private markets in life sciences innovation. The firm manages risk through "tactical and fundamental hedges" and careful attention to position sizing and liquidity.
Sector Focus
Exclusively life sciences: biopharmaceutical innovation, biotechnology, and specialty pharma. No investments outside healthcare/biotech were identified.
Stage Focus
Avoro operates on two tracks. The larger, longer-running business is a public/crossover equity strategy holding large stakes in publicly traded biotech and pharma companies (evidenced by 13F filings and public portfolio disclosures). Since 2022, the firm has run Avoro Ventures, a dedicated private venture arm that leads and co-leads Series A/B private financings for emerging biotech companies, often ahead of an eventual IPO or strategic exit. As of SEC records, the firm has been registered as an investment adviser since 2012.
Check Size
Not explicitly disclosed. Avoro Ventures has participated in large syndicated private rounds: Ottimo Pharma's $140M+ Series A (Dec 2024), Vicebio's $100M Series B (Sep 2024), Hemab Therapeutics' $135M Series B (2023), and Ethyreal Bio's $101M stealth financing (Jun 2026). Individual check size within these syndicates is not published.
Lead Tendency
Unknown/unclear from public sources. Avoro Ventures is regularly named in financing press releases alongside other investors, but the firm's own site does not specify lead vs. participant roles.
Recent Activity
- June 2026: Led/participated in Ethyreal Bio's $101M stealth-exit financing to advance ETHY-001, an anti-TSHR antibody for thyroid eye disease and Graves' disease.
- August 2025: Portfolio company Vicebio was acquired by Sanofi for $1.6B — a notable venture exit.
- December 2024: Participated in Ottimo Pharma's $140M+ Series A.
- September 2024: Participated in Vicebio's $100M Series B alongside initiation of a Phase 1 RSV/hMPV bivalent vaccine study.
- As of October 2025, third-party trackers estimate Avoro has invested in roughly 62 companies (public and private combined).
- Fund status: actively deploying, per continued 2025-2026 financing activity and new hires.
AUM: approximately $8.39B (discretionary) as of the firm's most recent SEC Form ADV, dated March 2026 (up from ~$5.64B at year-end 2023) — reflecting a large public-markets crossover book in addition to the venture arm.
Portfolio Highlights
Avoro's public "Investments" page lists 70+ companies spanning current and historical holdings, nearly all publicly traded biotech/pharma names (e.g., Sarepta Therapeutics, CRISPR Therapeutics, Intellia Therapeutics, Viking Therapeutics, Krystal Biotech, Argenx, Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, Kymera Therapeutics). Notable venture-side exits: Vicebio (acquired by Sanofi, $1.6B, Aug 2025), MyoKardia (acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb, 2020), Immunomedics (acquired by Gilead, $21B, 2020 — the firm's Managing Partner Behzad Aghazadeh served as Immunomedics' Executive Chairman through the deal), and Endocyte (acquired by Novartis, 2018).
Team
Avoro is led by Behzad Aghazadeh, PhD (Managing Partner & Portfolio Manager), a former research scientist and Booz Allen Hamilton consultant who later served as Executive Chairman of Immunomedics through its $21B Gilead acquisition. The Avoro Ventures private-investing team includes:
- Behzad Aghazadeh, PhD — Managing Partner & Portfolio Manager
- Mark Chin — Investment Partner, Avoro Ventures (ex-Managing Director, Arix Bioscience; ex-Principal, Longitude Capital; ex-BCG, Gilead, Genentech), joined as Partner Dec 2023
- Uya Chuluunbaatar, PhD — Investment Partner, Avoro Ventures (ex-Principal, Amzak Health; ex-Goldman Sachs biotech analyst), joined as Partner 2022
- Matthew Canver, MD/PhD — Director (CRISPR gene therapy research background, Harvard Medical School)
- Jenna Glatzer, PhD — Associate, Avoro Ventures (Johns Hopkins PhD), joined 2024
- Susana Wilson Hawken, PhD — Associate (ex-Norwest Venture Partners, MIT PhD), joined 2026
- Max Isberg — Senior Analyst (ex-Apex Capital Holdings), joined 2019
- Billy Smith — Associate (ex-Piper Sandler, JP Morgan equity research), joined 2025
- David Xiang, MD MPH — Associate (Harvard Medical School), joined 2025
Operations/finance leadership includes Scott Epstein (Partner, COO & CCO), Neil Cammarosano (CFO), and Lauren Godlasky (Head of Investor Relations & Marketing).
Decision Process
Not explicitly disclosed, but the presence of a multi-person Avoro Ventures investment team (Managing Partner + 2 Investment Partners + Director + Associates) reporting into a lead Portfolio Manager suggests a partnership-style process rather than a solo GP model.
Founder Preferences
No explicit founder-preference statement published. Given the venture team's composition (former operators, sell-side biotech analysts, and scientists with deep translational research backgrounds), the firm appears to favor scientifically differentiated, data-backed biotech programs over platform-only pitches.
Geographic Focus
Headquartered at 110 Greene Street, Suite 800, New York, NY 10012. Portfolio spans US and international biotech (e.g., Zealand Pharma - Denmark, Merus - Netherlands, argenx - Netherlands/Belgium), consistent with a global life-sciences investing mandate rather than a regional one.