Carolina Alarco

Founder and Principal, Bio Strategy Advisors LLC

Founding Venture Partner, AccelHUB Venture Partners

Co-Founder, Latinos in Bio

 

Carolina Alarco has more than 25 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Carolina has built a reputation for strategically building markets for rare diseases globally and successfully launching several orphan drugs. She is a dynamic, global, and well-regarded senior executive in the life sciences industry. She has a keen business acumen and a relentless focus on execution, consistently delivering results.

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Carolina is currently the Founder and Principal at Bio Strategy Advisors LLC, a strategic business consulting firm servicing small and medium-sized biotech, medical devices, and digital health companies. She specializes in start-up corporate strategy, strategic partnerships and M&A transactions, alliance establishment, licensing and full-service distribution deals, early-round fund-raising from institutional investors, VC’s or angel investors, clinical development program planning, commercial planning, geographical expansion, go-to-market models, patient advocacy, market access, and product launch strategy.

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Carolina is also a top-tier Founding Venture Partner at AccelHUB Venture Partners, where she plays a central role in the pitch evaluation, selection process, deal execution, and initial build of high-quality startups. She identifies and evaluates investment opportunities, participates in pitches and diligence, and influences the development of the Life Sciences portfolio for the venture capital firm.

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Prior to this, Carolina was the President of Global Marketing and International Markets at Novelion Therapeutics and left upon its acquisition by Amryt Pharma in September 2019. Novelion was formed from the merger between Aegerion Pharma and QLT Pharma in 2017. Carolina remained as President of the company after the M&A. In her 8-year tenure at Novelion/Aegerion, she single-handedly built the geographical footprint of the company from scratch through innovative go-to-market strategies.

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Prior to Novelion and Aegerion, Carolina spent 15 years in progressive P&L leadership roles at Genzyme Corporation, where she was a Vice-President for her last 5 years in the company. At Genzyme, Carolina played a pivotal role in several product launches globally, new market development, and geographical expansion. Her contributions helped spur the company’s growth from a one-product company in the ’90s, when she joined, into a highly diversified multi-billion dollar global business. She left upon the acquisition by Sanofi. Before her long-tenure at Genzyme, Carolina worked at Abbot Laboratories and at 3M, where she initiated her successful career in the industry.

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Carolina’s passion is to bring innovative technologies or therapies to patients in need around the world. Her mission is to facilitate the creation of start-ups in the healthcare space and propelling the growth of biotech companies by providing strategic advisory and contributing more than 25 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Having spent most of her career working in the Rare Genetic Disorders/Orphan Drugs area, Carolina’s global capabilities include experience in the US, Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Canada, and the Middle East. She speaks 5 languages and has a multicultural background. Throughout her career, she has acquired deep experience in General Management, Commercial Operations, Global Marketing, Business Development, Corporate Strategy, M&A deals, Alliance Management, and Market Development.

 

Carolina also has a strong philanthropic focus on causes such as children in need, women in science, and Latino affairs. She is the Co-Founder of Latinos in Bio and a Member of its Steering Committee and also serves in the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Women’s Advisory Board, the Board of the CURE Rare Disease Foundation, the Massachusetts STEM Advisory Council, and the Latino Council at Boston Children’s Hospital. She holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Lima (Lima, Peru) and a Graduate Degree in Business and Management from Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, USA).