Alts Watch Healthcare Beat: $2.3bn flows into drug R&D, digital health

Hedge funds, private equity firms, leading sovereign wealth funds and pensions this past week marched into emerging healthcare technologies that are preparing to go to market with revolutionary treatments. Roughly $2.3 billion flowed via 16 financing deals for the week ending January 17. Alternatives Watch has been tracking financing deals totaling $40 million and up since late September 2020. Firms/funds active in the space this week include: Coatue Management, Tiger Global, Insight Partners, Qatar Investment Authority, Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., Morningside Ventures, PSP Investments, Mirae Asset Management, OrbiMed and Perceptive Advisors. Also, this past week, Blackstone announced that Jeff Margolis would join the firm as a senior advisor. The alts firm has expanded its life sciences division investments over the past year and Margolis brings more than 35 years of experience growing healthcare technology and service organizations. He is the former chairman and CEO of TriZetto and prior CEO and current chair of Welltok Inc. “We are thrilled to have Jeff join us as a senior advisor as we continue to identify and back innovators in the healthcare space,” said Ram Jagannath, a senior managing director at Blackstone. “His strategic expertise in applying advanced technologies to address the complex challenges across the healthcare ecosystem will help our team better invest in, and support, the evolution and expansion of leading businesses in this industry.” The largest deals for the week done across the private capital space follow. EQRx The deal: $500 million in Series B roundThe players: The financing round includes backers from its Series A round that had participation from private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds and family offices. Those backers reportedly included: GV, ARCH Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Casdin Capital, Nextech and Arboretum Ventures.The play: EQRx, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. is focused on oncology treatments and is building a pipeline of new drug candidates to address cancer and inflammatory conditions that are projected to represented almost 40% of the drug spend among the highest cost diseases by 2025, company officials said. Hinge Health The deal: $300 million in Series D financing.The players: The latest fundraising was jointly led by hedge fund groups Coatue Management and Tiger Global and raises the valuation of the company to $3 billion. Other participants were from existing investors Atomico, Insight Partners, Quadrille, 11.22 Capital, Lead Edge Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Heuristic Capital. Lucas Swisher, partner at Coatue Management, said: “As the shift toward virtual healthcare condensed from an expected timeline of years to a matter of months, we saw how well Hinge Health responded and reacted. We believe Hinge Health’s digital clinic is unique and tackling one of the biggest challenges in healthcare, and we are excited to join them on the journey.”The play: Reportedly the company plans to go public in 2022, Reuters reported. The digital health company offers solutions for chronic musculoskeletal pain, including wearable solutions and health coaching. Hinge Health also sells to more than 300 self-insured employers, including Boeing and Walgreens Boots Alliance. Tessera Therapeutics The deal: $230 million in a Series B financing.The players: The round was co-led by Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., Altitude Life Science Ventures and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with participation from Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).The play: Tessera is an early-stage life sciences pioneer in gene writing, which is a novel technology with the ability to ‘write’ therapeutic instructions into the genome in order to treat diseases at their source. The treatments are focused on cardiovascular, oncological, neurodegenerative and infectious diseases. The latest funding round will expand its team and establish manufacturing and automation capabilities crucial for its expanding platform. NewAmsterdam The deal: $196 million in Series A financing round.The players: Venture capital firm Forbion was joined by Morningside Ventures and Ascendant BioCapital as co-lead investors in the round. Also participating were BVF Partners, legendary investor Peter Thiel, Janus Henderson Investors, GL Capital, JVC Investment Partners and Presight Capital. The play: The Dutch firm is looking to support the full Phase III development of its cholesterol-lowering drug. Valo The deal: $190 million in Series B financing.The players: The Public Sector Pension Investment Board in Canada (PSP Investments) led the financing. They were joined by existing major investors and new institutional investors including Invus Public Equities, HBM Healthcare Investments, Altinum Investment and Mirae Asset Capital.The play: The proceeds from the financing round will likely support discovery and development. Also, a further build-out will be funded of Valo’s proprietary Opal Computational Platform, that focuses on drug development for a variety of oncology treatments. VISEN Pharmaceuticals The deal: $160 million Series B financing.The players: Sequoia China led the financing, with participation from Orbimed, Sherpa Healthcare Partners, Cormorant, HBM Healthcare Investments, Pivotal bioVenture Partners China, Logos Capital and CDG Capital. Existing investors Vivo Capital, Ascendis Pharma A/S and Sofinnova Investments also participated.The play: This biotech company is focused on developing and commercializing innovative endocrine drugs that address significant unmet needs for patients in Greater China. The main focus is within endocrinology. IO Biotech The deal: $153 million in Series B financing.The players: The round was led by HBM Healthcare Investments with participation of existing investors Novo Seeds, Lundbeckfonden Emerge and Sunstone Life Science Ventures. New investors included Vivo Capital, Kurma Partners, Avoro Capital, RA Capital, Samsara Biocapital, Idinvest Partners, PFM Health Sciences, Soleus Capital, Eir Venturs and Serrado Capital.The play: The firm is likely to use the proceeds to test cancer vaccines, specifically in melanoma. IO Biotech is known for its immune-modulating anti-cancer therapies based on its proprietary T-win patented technology. Atalanta Therapeutics The deal: $110 million Series A financing.The players: The lead investor was F-Prime Capital, which is a global venture capital firm specializing in healthcare and technology.The play: Through a strategic collaboration with Biogen, Atalanta will develop RNAi therapeutics for multiple targets including within treatment of Huntington’s disease. The company’s partnership with Genentech takes on RNAi therapeutics for multiple central nervous system for neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Paige The deal: $100 million in Series C financing.The players: Lead investors are Casdin Capital and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, the strategic venture capital arm of Johnson & Johnson.The play: The AI digital diagnostics company plans to use the funding to continue developing its computational technologies, biomarkers and diagnostics and to hire within its engineering and commercial teams. Delfi Diagnostics The deal: $100 million in Series A financing.The players: OrbiMed led the financing round, with participation from existing investors including Menlo Ventures, Samsara Biocapital, Illumina Ventures, AV8 Ventures and Windham Venture Partners. New investors include Foresite Capital, Northpond Ventures, Cowen Healthcare Investments and Rock Springs Capital.The play: Delfi is a company that has pioneered early cancer detection technologies. The funds raised will be used to expand its team of cancer researchers and machine learning experts and to validate its novel next-generation liquid biopsy technology through multiple prospective clinical studies. Fujifilm/CABIM The deal: $76 million in financing and a signed lease for a new location.The players: Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Fujifilm, Cytiva and Alexandria Real Estate Equities all contributed to the funding.The play: Fujifilm and the Center of Advanced Biological Innovation and Manufacturing (CABIM) plan to advance research and development in cell and gene therapy, gene editing, immunotherapy and biotechnology. Immunocore The deal: $75 million in Series C financing, plus $100 million senior secured loan.The players: Led by an unnamed existing investor, the deal also included backing from BlackRock funds. Virginia-based Oxford Finance backed a $100 million senior secured loan to Immunocore. Oxford Finance is a specialty finance firm providing senior secured loans to private and public life sciences and healthcare services companies worldwide.The play: Headquartered in the U.K., Immunocore is a late-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of a novel class of T cell receptor bispecific immunotherapies designed to treat a broad range of diseases including cancer. Impulse Dynamics The deal: $60 million Series D financing.The players: The financing round was anchored by China Resources Capital Management’s CR-CCT Industry Pilot Fund along with Redmile Group and Perceptive Advisors.The play: Impulse stated that it planned to use some of the proceeds to support the continued U.S. commercialization of the Optimizer Smart -- an FDA-approved implantable device for treating chronic heart failure. Genalyte The deal: $50 million in private financing.The players: The financing round was led by Verily, an Alphabet company, and included current major investors Provenio Capital, Redmile, Khosla Ventures, HBM Partners and Samsara.The play: The company said it is planning to use the funds to expand the text menu of its Maverick diagnostic system and rapidly deploy the platform in clinical and retail settings. The system uses silicon chip-based technology to perform multiple and simultaneous rapid tests on a small volume of whole blood or serum in 20 minutes. The test can detect up to 26 antibodies in one drop of blood, officials said. Sugerii The deal: $46 million in a Series B financing.The players: The round was led by CMG-SDIC Capital, a private equity firm created by state-owned China Merchants Group and China’s SDIC Fund Management.The play: This Chinese robotic surgery devices developer is expected to have a robot enter into the clinical research stage this year. Elucida Oncology The deal: $44 million Series A-1 financing round.The players: Undisclosed.The play: The company is slated to complete investigational studies for its new C’Dot-Drug-Conjugates (CDCs), which are designed to overcome the limitations of antibody-drug conjugates and more traditional drug carriers. NuProbe The deal: $42 million in an oversubscribed round of financing.The players: The lead investors for this Houston/Shanghai based company are BioTrack Capital and Yonghua Capital.The play: NuProbe, a molecular diagnostics firm, previously signed a deal to develop a non-small cell lung cancer liquid biopsy panel. The company said it will use the financing to expand its commercial teams in the U.S. and China, as well as to support its sequencing products and filing for Chinese regulatory approval for its clinical products.

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Alts Watch Healthcare Beat: $2.3bn flows into drug R&D, digital health

Continue Reading

Read Next

Houston pension allocates $25m to cryptocurrency

Cyndx launches new cap table management platform for VCs, private equity firms

BTIG builds out structured products business

Pantheon exceeds target for dedicated secondaries program

Blackstone assets up 25% amid strong earnings growth

H Venture Partners bets on diversity and consumers

TCI celebrates as CN’s Jean-Jacques Ruest resigns

White Oak closes private credit fund at $2.3bn

Virginia pension adds more than $1bn to alts

HF alpha varied, yet still on the upswing along with AUM

Houston pension allocates $25m to cryptocurrency

Cyndx launches new cap table management platform for VCs, private equity firms

BTIG builds out structured products business

Pantheon exceeds target for dedicated secondaries program

Blackstone assets up 25% amid strong earnings growth

H Venture Partners bets on diversity and consumers

TCI celebrates as CN’s Jean-Jacques Ruest resigns

White Oak closes private credit fund at $2.3bn

Virginia pension adds more than $1bn to alts

HF alpha varied, yet still on the upswing along with AUM

Continue Reading

Read Next

Houston pension allocates $25m to cryptocurrency

Cyndx launches new cap table management platform for VCs, private equity firms

BTIG builds out structured products business

Pantheon exceeds target for dedicated secondaries program

Blackstone assets up 25% amid strong earnings growth

H Venture Partners bets on diversity and consumers

TCI celebrates as CN’s Jean-Jacques Ruest resigns

White Oak closes private credit fund at $2.3bn

Virginia pension adds more than $1bn to alts

HF alpha varied, yet still on the upswing along with AUM

Be an Alts Watcher

Subscribe to our mailing list and know first!

Proteus platform builds out model alts portfolios

AW Investor Scorecard: Allocators finalize $14bn plus in private market commitments

Get our daily news digest in your inbox

Get our daily news digest
in your inbox