That “cha-ching” you hear? That’s the sound of one of these firms making an investment. [© romantiche - Fotolia.com]
#5. (tie) Novartis Option Fund
Resources: Initial fund of $200 million toward seed innovative startup companies during their earliest stages
Current portfolio: Nine companies
Amount of investment: $20 million to $25 million over the life of a company. The initial equity investment can be coupled with an option to a specific therapeutic program giving early validation for the startup company’s technology
Investment preferences: Early-stage, high-risk areas enabling the development of novel programs and technologies
Year established: 2007
#5. (tie) Lilly Ventures
Resources: $200 million under management
Current portfolio: 15 companies
Amount of investment: $5 million to $15 million per company
Investment preferences: Biotech companies that leverage proprietary drug discovery or development technologies to build a multi-product pipeline; companies focused on the convergence of devices with pharmaceuticals or diagnostics; North American and European regions
Year established: 2001
#5. (tie) Baxter Ventures
Resources: $200 million
Current portfolio: Seven investments, most being direct investment in companies, with the rest being investments in life sciences venture funds
Amount of investment: A typical equity investment is $1 million to $5 million initial investment, with a potential of investing up to $10 million over the life of the company
Investment preferences: Companies with innovative technologies, products, and therapies with the potential to improve patient care globally and maximize value for investors and entrepreneurs; Focus areas include therapeutic areas complementary to those of Baxter's existing Medical Products and BioScience businesses, as well as cutting-edge technologies and therapies outside of Baxter’s current product portfolio that have sustainable long-term growth potential.
Year established: 2011
#5. (tie) Amgen Ventures
Resources: $200 million in two funds: Amgen Ventures I, a $100 million fund founded 2004; and Amgen Ventures II, a $100 million fund founded 2012
Current portfolio: 13 companies—12 in Amgen Ventures I; one in Amgen Ventures II
Amount of investment: Typically $3 million to 5 million per company per round, and may invest up to $15 million over the life of the company.
Investment preferences: Early-stage to early clinical companies developing human therapeutics. While the fund’s focus is primarily in areas of current therapeutic interest to Amgen—which include oncology, inflammation, hematology/nephrology, metabolic disorders, neuroscience and cardiovascular—the fund also seeks novel modalities with potential to address targets in both current and emerging therapeutic areas of interest. We will also review companies developing drug delivery and monitoring devices. Currently seeking investments in North America, Europe, and the U.K.
Year established: 2004
#4. Merck Research Ventures Fund (Merck & Co.)6
Resources: $250 million evergreen fund. First phase was to establish a network of fund-to-fund investments. Majority of activity going forward will be direct minority equity investments in biotech companies, including formation of new startups
Current portfolio: No direct investments in companies; limited partner investments in five venture capital funds as of April 2013, including an undisclosed sum in the $270 million fourth fund of Flagship Ventures, and the establishment, with Lumira Capital, of the Merck-Lumira Bioscience Fund in Canada
Amount of investment: Flexible, but target $3 million to $7 million during first round, with follow-on investment up to 5–15% ownership
Investment preferences: New ventures that apply scientific breakthroughs to the development of new drugs (small molecules, biologics, vaccines) in areas of unmet medical need
Year established: 2011
#3. MedImmune Ventures (AstraZeneca)
Resources: $400 million under management in an evergreen fund
Current portfolio: 15 companies
Amount of investment: $15 million to $25 million over the life of an investment
Investment preferences: Private companies that develop small and large molecules, vaccines, pharmaceutical technologies and platforms, with early to late stage products and technologies, in early (e.g. seed) to late (e.g. mezzanine) rounds of financing. Geographic scope includes North America, Western Europe, Israel and Australia. The fund also seek investments in medical device, diagnostic, imaging and healthcare IT companies pertaining to the discovery, development and commercialization of pharmaceutical products. Therapeutic scope includes cardiology, gastroenterology, neuroscience, oncology, pulmonology, infectious disease, inflammation and metabolism
Year established: 2002
#2. Roche Venture Fund
Resources: Evergreen fund of CHF 500 million ($534.2 million), of which about 40% is currently invested3
Current portfolio: About 30 companies in 10 countries across Europe, North America and the Pacific region
Amount of investment: Initial investment of CHF 1 million (about $1.1 million) to CHF 5 million ($5.3 million)3
Investment preferences: Companies with innovative new technologies, medicines or diagnostics, in areas of interest, including oncology, central nervous system; inflammation; metabolic diseases; virology; in vitro diagnostics; diabetes care; molecular diagnostics; and innovative research technologies. Also, Series B companies, though the Fund has invested earlier with a syndicate. For therapeutic biotechs, Fund is “willing to invest in companies that are still 18–24 months away from the clinic.”7
Year established: 2002
#1. Novartis Venture Fund
Resources: More than $600 million under management via evergreen fund re-investing returns generated
Current portfolio: Approximately 60 companies
Amount of investment: Up to $30 million per company over its life; minimum can be as little as $100,000
Investment preferences: Novel therapeutics and platforms for human and animal health; diagnostics or drug delivery systems. “We look for unmet need and clinical impact, novel proprietary science and understanding of mechanism, management, and board experience and capital efficiency in the program.”8
Year established: 1996
Honorable Mentions
The following funds did not make the cut simply because we weren't able to ascertain how big they are. Still, don't write off these guys as skinflints:
AbbVie Biotech Ventures Inc. (ABVI; formerly Abbott Biotech Ventures)
Resources: Size of current fund unavailable2
Current portfolio: Number of companies unavailable2
Amount of investment: Ranges from several hundred thousand dollars up to several million, depending on the opportunity and development stage. ABVI says it will always remain a minority investor.
Investment preferences: Companies with programs ranging from preclinical to early proof-of-concept are of highest interest. ABVI invests in technologies that are strategic to AbbVie such as neuroscience, immunology, virology, and oncology, as well as emerging or more opportunistic areas of innovation that have the potential to complement AbbVie’s existing portfolio or to expand AbbVie’s future business reach.
Year established: 2013
Astellas Venture Management (AVM)
Resources: Combined size of funds unavailable9
Current portfolio: 19 companies—14 funded via Astellas Venture Fund I, managed since 2005; three via Astellas Venture Capital since 2000; and two via Fujisawa Investments for Entrepreneurship (FITE) funds I and II, managed since 1999 and 2001, respectively
Amount of investment: Figure or range unavailable
Investment preferences: Privately owned biotechnology companies focused on discovering and developing human therapeutics. AVM seeks companies with potential to become Astellas Pharma’s collaboration partners in R&D, in disease fields aligned with Astellas’ priority therapeutic categories of diabetes complications and other metabolic diseases, immunology and infectious diseases, neuroscience, oncology, and urology
Year established: 1999
Johnson & Johnson Development Corp. (JJDC)
Resources: Size of fund undisclosed
Current portfolio: Undisclosed number of companies10
Amount of investment: Undisclosed10
Investment preferences: Pharmaceuticals and biotechnologies “that create synergistic solutions in” treating and curing chronic and life-threatening diseases, with clinically validated solutions across pharmaceuticals, regenerative medicine, gene therapies, and tissue and organ engineering. Also, medical device and diagnostic “solutions that have significant addressable markets” through early detection, prevention, and remediation of disease and are supported with validated data and research.11
Year established: 1973
Novo Growth Equity (Novo A/S)
Resources: Current figure not disclosed12
Current portfolio: Five companies
Amount of investment: Depends on company; amount can total “several” billion DKK per company13
Investment preferences: Late-stage funding for well-established life science companies with positive cash flow, strongly positioned products and attractive prospects.
Year established: 2009
Notes:
1 SR One appears to be allowing for smaller investments compared with 2011, when a fund partner told GEN that initial investment was in the $4 million to $10 million range, with follow-on financings that could potentially raise the total investment to between $20 million and $25 million. See: http://www.genengnews.com/insight-and-intelligence/biopharma-venture-funds-are-stepping-up-where-vc-firms-are-stepping-out/77899453/
2 Fund did not respond to GEN email queries seeking verification of information published on its website and/or additional information.
3 Figures converted to U.S. dollars via XE (www.xe.com) on June 7, 2013
4 See “Merck Serono Announces the Creation of Ondaco, the Fifth Company Stemming From Its Entrepreneur Partnership Program,” released January 23, and available here: http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/merck-serono-announces-the-creation-of-ondaco-the-fifth-company-stemming-from-its-entrepreneur-partnership-program-188007581.html
5 Figures converted to U.S. dollars via XE (www.xe.com) on June 7, 2013. The May 16 announcement can be seen here: http://news.merck.de/N/0/1A9A54BFA50CDC77C1257B6D002842EF/$File/MSVentures_eng.pdf
6 MRVF is separate from Merck’s Global Health Innovation, also a $250 million fund but focused on developing companies in two categories outside of Merck's core pharmaceuticals, vaccines, consumer products, and animal health businesses—health solutions and services, and health information technology
7 Fund did not respond to GEN email queries seeking confirmation. Information comes from Roche Venture Fund website, http://www.venturefund.roche.com/Investment-Criteria.html
8 Reinhard Ambros, global head of the Novartis Venture Funds, 2012 Annual Report, p. 6; confirmed June 10 via interview http://www.venturefund.novartis.com//assets/files/VentureFundReport2012.pdf
9 Fund did not respond to GEN email queries seeking confirmation and/or additional information. According to a list published online last year in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Venture Capital, a blog by Andrew Romans within the website of the Founders Club, AVM had a total $160 million as of 2011. See: http://www.founders-club.com/blog/entry/list-of-the-most-active-vcs-in-healthcare-and-life-science-biotech-part-1-of-6.html. An undated description on Viamet’s website pegs the combined size of the four funds as totaling “approximately $100 million.” See http://www.viamet.com/investors.asp
10 In recent weeks, JJDC led $14 million Series B venture round for Protagonist Therapeutics, announced June 4; other investors included Lilly Ventures. JJDC also led $18 million Series C round for Aquinox Pharmaceuticals, announced April 3; other investors included Pfizer Venture Investments. As is typical in such financings, JJDC’s investment wasn’t disclosed. However, JJDC investments in two companies were made public in recent years: On August 20, 2012, Danish-owned Genmab said JJDC would invest 475 million Danish crowns ($84.2 million) in new company shares. See: http://ir.genmab.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=703394. And in 2011, JJDC made an equity investment of about $7.5 million in Astellas shares, under a deal by which Astellas granted a license to commercialize antibodies targeting the RON receptor to J&J’s Centocor, Astellas said in an SEC filing that noted the agreement was terminated as of December 6, 2012. See: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1325879/000119312513101343/R15.htm
11 JJDC criteria for pharmaceuticals and biotechnologies published online at http://www.jjdevcorp.com/pharmaceuticals-biotechnology; and JJDC criteria for medical devices and diagnostics, published online at http://www.jjdevcorp.com/medical-devices-diagnostics
12 Status updated June 6 by a Novo Growth Equity spokesperson. Back in 2009, however, Novo announced plans to invest $200 million annually into “promising later stage and commercially viable life science companies.” See http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20090625005093/en/Novo-Growth-Equity-Expands-Team-Invest-200M
13 On its web page, Novo Growth Equity states, “These late-stage investments may amount to several billion DKK per company in exchange for influential equity ownership stakes in publicly listed as well as privately owned companies.” See http://www.novo.dk/growth-equity/about
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