In November 2021, Agreus broke the news that behind the world’s most successful coronavirus vaccination sat two brothers in a single Family Office in Munich.
Behind the brilliant scientists at German Immunotherapy Company BioNTech, who partnered with multinational pharmaceutical company Pfizer to create the vaccine, sat Andreas and Thomas Strüngmann and their Single Family Office; Athos Service GmbH.
The Strüngmann brothers who have a long-standing history in pharmaceuticals quickly became one of few Single Family Offices globally to have a single holding in their portfolio valued at over $12BN when BioNTech was listed on Nasdaq with a valuation of $25.3BN in November 2021. Since then, Agreus has been exploring the pivotal role that Family Offices can play in early-stage science ventures and it appears 18 months on and Athos Service was not alone in their offering.
With 53% of Family Offices diversifying their investment portfolios as a direct result of COVID-19, it was never going to be long before we found a Family Office behind another ground-breaking discovery but it seems there was another Family Office in the vaccination race all-along and this time, it was behind biotechnology company, Moderna.
Dr Noubar Afeyan is an American-Canadian entrepreneur, inventor and philanthropist who is best known within the Family Office community for co-founding humanitarian projects such as the Aurora Prize but what many might not know or think about in this context, is that he is also the co-founder and Chairman of biotechnology company Moderna who as many will know, is the creator of one of just three globally approved coronavirus vaccinations.
Moderna is now a household name with a market cap of $59.64 Billion as of July 2022. Afeyan is one of five billionaires associated with it and just one of several successes achieved through Flagship, his venture capital firm which boasts $17BN in AUM. Through this Family Office turned incubator, Afeyan is able to offer a platform and a resource to scientific ideas across the world and since its inception, has played a role in more than 70 early-stage science ventures.
When asked why by Forbes, Afeyan said simply: “Why wouldn’t you think you can change the world in the particular area you are working on?” and through this response, continues to show the entire Family Office community just how pivotal a role Family Offices can play in early-stage ventures, scientific and otherwise.
This also offers a tangible example of how Impact Investing can work within a Family Office, able to make a social impact in the form of potentially saving millions of lives, all while making a financial return. Does it really get better than that?