Viehbacher to Manage Bertarelli Healthcare Fund

Christopher Viehbacher, former CEO of Sanofi, has been named managing partner of US-based Gurnet Point Capital. The $2 billion healthcare investment fund belongs to the Waypoint group, investment vehicle of the Swiss Bertarelli family.

The 55-year-old manager was fired from the Sanofi position – which he had held for six years – in late October 2014 after a clash with the French drugmaker’s supervisory board.

Viehbacher has also hired on as director of PureTech, a life science investment company that raised $171 million in a London initial public offering earlier in June. However, he told the UK newspaper Financial Times that Gurnet Point would be his full-time job, with digital health a primary focus.

The Waypoint fund sold Swiss-based biotech drug firm Serono to Germany’s Merck KGaA in 2006 for a reported $13bn.