The Vistria Group Announces the Appointment of Healthcare Pioneer Dr. Tony Coles as Senior Advisor
Appointment comes on the heels of the Firm’s fifth and largest fundraise to date and adds to the deep bench of sector expertise across the firm.
Chicago, IL, February 20, 2025 — The Vistria Group, LP (“Vistria”), a middle market private investment firm that seeks to deliver both superior financial returns and meaningful impact, today announced that Dr. Tony Coles, M.D., M.P.H. will join the firm as Senior Advisor. Dr. Coles joins the Firm’s formidable Healthcare team who have led and guided the investment of more than $9.5 billion of institutional capital in 24 companies across the life sciences and healthcare industries.
Dr. Coles, who brings decades of strategic, operational and leadership experience in healthcare and life sciences, joins as Vistria seeks to accelerate investments in the field. Most recently, he served as the Chairman and CEO of Cerevel Therapeutics, a company pioneering new treatments for neuroscience diseases that was acquired by AbbVie in August 2024. Dr. Coles served as Chairman and CEO of Onyx Pharmaceuticals, a global biopharmaceutical company that developed and commercialized innovative therapies for the treatment of cancer. Onyx was acquired by Amgen in 2013. In addition, Dr. Coles previously served as Chairman and CEO of Yumanity Therapeutics and CEO of NPS Pharmaceuticals. He has held leadership positions at Merck & Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. He is also a member of the board of directors of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and a former board member of the McKesson Corporation, LabCorp, and CRISPR Therapeutics.
“At The Vistria Group, we pride ourselves on looking deeper by leveraging the breadth and depth of our integrated approach to healthcare and life sciences investing and harnessing the power of our portfolio, commercial relationships, operating experience and policy expertise to unlock value in the middle market. Tony’s decades of leadership experience in building several highly successful therapeutics companies, as well as supporting a range of companies across the pharma value chain from the board level, will help our portfolio companies accelerate innovation and enhance patient outcomes,” said David Schuppan, Senior Partner and Co-Head of Healthcare at The Vistria Group.
Dr. Coles has been named Chairman of the Board for BioCare, which provides specialty pharmaceutical distribution, third-party logistics services and GPO services in the Retina and Oncology markets through AllyGPO. He also joins the board of Ora Clinical, the leading global ophthalmic contract research organization (CRO). Dr. Coles complements the Firm’s existing life sciences expertise that includes Schuppan and Partners Natasha Latif and Mo Yang who co-lead Vistria’s Life Sciences strategy. He will work closely with the Firm’s Life Sciences team to source and evaluate new opportunities for investment.
“The life sciences sector is experiencing unprecedented growth and change. By leveraging our integrated healthcare and life sciences expertise, operating talent, and deep commercial relationships, we invest across the full value chain – from R&D enablement through commercialization, delivery and benefits management.” said Mona Sutphen, Senior Partner and Head of Investment Strategies. “This distinctive integrated approach, combined with our proven ability to identify and scale market-leading companies, enables us to create significant value for both portfolio companies and investors.”
“Breakthroughs in life sciences today are creating unprecedented opportunities to transform patient care,” said Dr. Coles. “By combining The Vistria Group’s investment capabilities with deep experience in building and scaling biopharmaceutical companies, we can provide unique value to the marketplace.”
Dr. Coles earned a B.A. at Johns Hopkins University, an M.D. from Duke University, and a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University. He completed his cardiology and internal medicine training at Massachusetts General Hospital and was a research fellow at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Coles currently chairs the Advisory Council for the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture and serves on the Boards of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Council on Foreign Relations.
About The Vistria Group
The Vistria Group is building a new kind of private investment firm that seeks to deliver both financial returns and impact. It invests in essential industries like healthcare, knowledge & learning solutions, financial services and housing that deliver value for investors as well as communities, employees, and consumers. With almost $16 billion in AUM, The Vistria Group looks deeper by working as a true partner, drawing on its deep sector knowledge, operational expertise, unique network, diverse team, and impact orientation to achieve transformational growth. For more information, please visit vistria.com.
