Frederick Jones

Frederick "Rick" Jones is a physician-turned-investor with more than 30 years in the life-sciences industry, spanning roles as a practicing physician, operating executive, consultant, board director, and venture investor. He is a board-certified internal medicine physician who practiced in the U.S. Navy, at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, MA, and at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned all three of his degrees — B.A., M.D., and MBA — from the University of Pennsylvania.

Jones began his industry career at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, first in Global Medical Affairs and later in Global Business Development. He subsequently held executive positions at BioRexis Pharmaceutical (later acquired by Pfizer) and at Devgen NV in Ghent, Belgium, and served as Chief Executive Officer of Anchor Therapeutics, a venture-backed company developing a platform of peptide modulators of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs).

Before joining BioAdvance, Jones was a Director at Broadview Ventures, a Boston-based philanthropic venture fund investing in breakthrough cardiovascular technologies, where he held board and observer roles across companies including Aeromics, Nido Surgical, Aria CV, Ischemia Care, and Remedy Pharmaceuticals. At BioAdvance he serves as Advisory Partner responsible for therapeutics and medical-device investments and sits on the boards of portfolio companies Envara Health and RightAir.

BioAdvance itself is one of the nation's leading pre-seed and seed-stage life-sciences investors. Operating a ~$50 million Greenhouse Fund, it has committed more than $40 million to over 50 seed-stage and 17 pre-seed companies in Southeastern Pennsylvania since making its first investments in 2003.

• Invests at the pre-seed and seed stage in regional (Southeastern PA) life-sciences companies — therapeutics, devices, diagnostics, and platform technologies. Jones personally focuses on therapeutics and medical devices.
• Weights team over technology: *"It's probably better to invest in a team that's been there, done that and been successful that has a technology that's maybe second-tier, than investing in a first-tier technology that has a team that's totally inexperienced."*
• Values multidisciplinary drug-development expertise — basic science plus regulatory, toxicology/pharmacology, and manufacturing know-how — on the founding team.
• Looks past the numbers to real-world implementation: *"Does it make sense at a global level, and how will this be implemented at the patient-physician interface?"* — skeptical of solutions that would require reorganizing how care is delivered.
• Expects fundraising to be tied to value-creation milestones, not just covering operating expenses.