SV Life Sciences ("SVLS") today announced the appointment of three new venture partners strengthening the firm’s expertise in biotechnology and health care services. The new SVLS Venture Partners include:

• Sarah Bodary, Ph.D., focused in biotechnology and based in the San Francisco office
• Gary Velasquez, focused in health care services and based in the San Francisco office; and
• Kevin Barrett, focused in health care services and based in the Boston office.

Sarah Bodary joins SVLS with over 20 years experience in research, drug development and licensing in the biotech industry. As a biologist at Genentech, she led teams that developed peptide and small molecule antagonists of cell adhesion from discovery through clinical trials. She was also a member of the development and launch teams for the Raptiva® antibody. Most recently Dr. Bodary was responsible for licensing at Schering-Plough Biopharma, the biologics subsidiary of Schering-Plough Corporation. She received a B.Sc. in Molecular Biology from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland and completed a Postdoctorate in Molecular Neurobiology at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute of the University of California at San Francisco.

“We are very pleased that Sarah Bodary has joined us as a Venture Partner,” commented SVLS Managing Partner, Michael Ross, Ph.D. “Her extensive hands-on experience with both drug discovery and development, coupled with her experience in the licensing of biopharmaceuticals and her extensive connections in both large pharmaceutical and smaller biotech companies bring new depth to the SVLS therapeutics team.”

Gary Velasquez recently rejoined SVLS as a Venture Partner with more than 25 years of experience in healthcare services, having previously left that role in 2004 to join SVLSFIII portfolio company Synarc as President & Chief Executive Officer. Synarc was successfully exited by SVLSFIII in 2008. Mr. Velasquez currently serves on the board of directors of SVLS portfolio company Socios Mayores. Previously, Mr. Velasquez was a senior executive at Health Net, Inc., a large publicly traded healthcare services company. In this role, he was responsible for more than 10 operating subsidiaries in addition to directing Health Net’s Information Systems and New Venture divisions.