Fred Craves

​Fred Craves, PhD, is the Founder of Bay City Capital. Since launching the firm in 1997, Fred has built Bay City Capital to become one of the world’s premier life science investment firms investing in nearly 100 companies and raising more than $1.6 billion.

As a leader in healthcare venture capital, Dr. Craves brings both scientific skills and deep operational expertise to the companies in which he invests. This allows him to source outstanding investment opportunities and to support exceptional management teams in creating value. He has been associated with some of the most significant exits in the biopharmaceutical industry including Reliant Pharmaceuticals, a company he founded then sold to GlaxoSmithKline in 2007 in the single largest all-cash transaction for a venture backed biotech company at that time. He has served as Executive Vice President of Schering Berlin, Chief Executive Officer and President of Berlex Biosciences, Founding Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Codon, and co-founder of Creative Biomolecules. Currently, he is Executive Chairman of IMIDomics.

Dr. Craves has been named to the Forbes Midas List, which recognizes the most successful investors in the venture capital asset class across both the technology and healthcare industries. He currently serves on the Boards of Dermira, Imidomics Inc., Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, Reset Therapeutics and Twist Bioscience. Previous investments and board participation, in addition to Reliant, include Medarex, Incyte Pharmaceuticals, and Ion Torrent. He earned a BS in Biology from Georgetown University and a PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of California, San Francisco.