Profile: Osagie Imasogie L'85
Osagie Imasogie, a Nigerian-American, took the
inspiration for much of his work from a proverb
of his mother's people, the Yorubas: "A crumb
from an elephant's meal is a feast for an ant."
In this case, the elephants included
GlaxoSmithKline, where Osagie was the
founding Vice President of GSK Ventures. He
established a system for smaller biotech
start-ups to further develop products halted in
R&D at big pharmaceutical companies. These
larger companies then received an upside as a
result of their equity interests in the smaller
companies. All parties stand to benefit from this
structure.Osagie then went on to co-found Phoenix IP Ventures, an IP Merchant Bank based in Philadelphia. His firm is engaged in private equity and venture capital transactions within the life sciences space. All his work requires the same skill set, he notes, namely, developing the concept, articulating it and actualizing it. "Legal education is a powerful basis to enable one to effectuate this process," Osagie says. "A Penn legal education is particularly relevant due to its emphasis on and opportunity for students to take a multidisciplinary approach to the study of law."
The satisfaction of all this? The intellectual stimulation - and knowing that these ventures have brought medicines to patients in need. Osagie is also a member of the adjunct faculty at the Law School, teaching a course on Intellectual Property and National Economic Value Creation.
