If one had taken a group photo of the leading life sciences VCs in the late 1990s, you might have found Vivo Ventures standing in the back row, its face partially obscured by a waving hand or a large head. Known then as BioAsia, Vivo Ventures walked the same hallways and sat in the same board rooms as the big firms on Silicon Valley’s campus. But the firm always stood apart as a Silicon Valley firm with unknown Asian backers looking to invest in US life science companies. No one quite knew whether Vivo functioned as a true venture capital firm, a business development program, or just an overseas financial adventure of wealthy investors from abroad. The firm nevertheless trudged along, building a healthy portfolio of US biopharmaceutical and device companies.
Gather that same group today and Vivo Ventures would be easy to find, perhaps even standing front and center. The...