Abingworth, an international investment group dedicated to life sciences, closed its 11th life sciences fund, at $105m.
Abingworth Clinical Co-Development Fund (ACCF), was oversubscribed, exceeding its target of $100 million, and will co-invest with other Abingworth funds.
The vehicle focuses on investing in late-stage therapeutic clinical programs derived from Pharmaceutical and Biotech groups through Abingworth co-development portfolio companies. These co-development companies finance the late-stage trials and incur all of the clinical and regulatory risk.
They receive a pre-negotiated return once the drug is approved.
Abingworth has made seven co-development investments through its portfolio companies, Avillion and SFJ Pharmaceuticals. One such investment in SFJ Pharmaceuticals supported the Phase III development of Eisai’s lenvatinib, which resulted in a five-fold increase in progression free survival for thyroid cancer patients. This led to approval of the product (LENVIMA™) in the US, Europe and Japan, and a high quality exit for Abingworth.
ACCF has committed to its first investment in SFJ Pharmaceuticals IX, a company pursuing a late-stage clinical co-development business model, based in San Francisco.
Led by Managing Partner Tim Haines, Abingworth is dedicated to collaborating with life sciences entrepreneurs to develop their ideas into products that have an impact on health. With over $1 billion under management, the firm invests at all stages of development, from startups to publicly traded companies, and across all life science sectors. To date, it has invested in 138 life science companies, leading to 60 IPOs and 40 mergers and acquisitions.
Abingworth has a team of 27 at offices in London, Menlo Park (California) and Boston.
FinSMEs
21/01/2016