The monster fund raced past its original target to close at the hard cap.

Venture capital group Life Science Partners (LSP) just closed its sixth investment fund targeting European life science companies. The $600 million (€529 million) raising is said to be the largest of its kind in Europe. Certainly, it is large enough to be 80% of the combined size of LSP’s five previous funds. (pharmaphorum)

Investors rush to invest in LSP 6

LSP’s impressive record of exits from previous funds obviously lead to a solid response to the latest fund. Pharmaceutical giants Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) and Otsuka (OTCMKTS: OTSKF) came on board. Other investors included pension funds, insurance companies, wealth managers, government funds, and family offices.

Apart from its own “outstanding 32-year track record,” LSP also attributed the successful raising to the potential of the large and fast-growing market opportunity in Europe for life science companies.

The firm commenced investing in life sciences in 1988. Since then it has raised $ 2.5 billion to build over 120 companies. Many of these companies have developed breakthrough new medications or technologies.

Investing firepower

The VC giant is now armed with $ 1.1 billion worth of capital taking into account the latest LSP six fund, The LSP Health Economics Fund, and LSP’s public fund and mandates.

However, the remit for LSP 6 is to invest in 15 to 18 predominantly European private companies developing innovative, cutting-edge medications or medical technologies with the potential to become real-world healthcare solutions.

“The number of high-quality life sciences innovations in Europe is similar to the United States but there is 5x less capital available to back these innovators and entrepreneurs,” said René Kuijten, Managing Partner of LSP, in a statement. “With our new fund, we can significantly contribute to the growth of our industry and ensure that European innovations get to patients faster.’’

However, in 2019, the European biotech industry attracted $8 billion in funding from both public and private equity sources. That was a successful year by any standards.

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