OrbiMed's roots trace back to 1989, when S.G. Warburg pharmaceutical analysts Viren Mehta and Samuel Isaly founded Mehta & Isaly, a research and money-management firm that made its first venture capital investment in 1993. The firm split in 1998, with Isaly forming OrbiMed Advisors, and it has since grown into one of the world's largest dedicated healthcare investment platforms - a rare structure that spans public equity, private equity/venture, and private credit and royalty financing all within a single healthcare-only specialist group. That breadth lets OrbiMed fund a company from seed through IPO and well beyond using one continuous relationship, and its roughly 150-person investment team, including PhD scientists, MDs, and CFAs, now manages approximately $20 billion across all three strategies.
No single confirmed signature exit - OrbiMed is instead widely regarded in biotech as a 'stamp of validation' and IPO accelerator, with many companies specifically seeking its backing to help secure Nasdaq or HKEX listings