Biogen

Corporate venture investing at Biogen is conducted through Biogen New Ventures, led by Chelsea Johnson as Head of Biogen New Ventures. She reports within the corporate development structure, which ultimately falls under CEO Christopher Viehbacher. The unit operates with a mandate to make strategic minority equity investments aligned with the parent company's R&D priorities.

Biogen New Ventures makes direct minority equity investments rather than participating as a limited partner in external venture funds. The unit's purpose — gaining visibility into adjacent science and securing future partnering or acquisition optionality — is best served by direct stakes. There is no public record of the firm acting as an LP in biotechnology venture capital funds.

Investments cluster around the parent company's strategic interests: multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and neurodegeneration, neuromuscular disease, neuropsychiatry, and immunology. Rare genetic diseases of the central nervous system form a secondary focus. The firm explicitly avoids oncology, metabolic disease, and cardiovascular biotechnology, where it has no pipeline programs.

Biogen New Ventures sits within the broader corporate development function and draws its capital allocation from the parent company's balance sheet, not from a ring-fenced venture fund. The parent spent roughly $2.2 billion on research and development in 2022 (per company filings), and venture equity investments represent a small fraction of that total, functioning as an external-innovation supplement rather than an independent return-seeking pool.