Life Science Investors Look to Asia for Innovation

2 Oct

By Lucy Parkinson, Senior Research Manager, LSN

lucy 10*10At LSN, we track both life science companies and life science investors located all over the world. We frequently stress that if you’re seeking capital in the life science field, you will have more success if you reach out beyond your own backyard and market your opportunity to global investors. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Asia, where a history of concentrated R&D funding has resulted in the flowering of new biotech start-ups in the region.

The LSN Company Platform tracks thousands of life science companies across Asia. As shown in Exhibit 1, some of these are contract research organizations, suppliers, and other outsourcing partners, but many are companies developing innovative biotechnology or medical technology products.

Exhibit 1

Exhibit 1

As in the rest of the world, government investment in R&D has resulted in a great diversity of new discoveries. A deeper dive into the data reveals the breadth of technologies that these innovators are pursuing. As shown in Exhibit 2, many therapeutic start-ups in Asia are developing novel biologics.

Exhibit 2

Exhibit 2

Exhibit 3 shows the medtech sphere, where diagnostic devices, imaging, and hospital hardware predominate.

Exhibit 3

Exhibit 3

So which investors are interested in investing in Asia-based companies? As shown in Exhibit 4, the LSN Investor Platform has hundreds of investors who are looking at opportunities in Asia. Some of these investors have a specific Asia strategy; others are truly global investors who would consider a good opportunity no matter where a company is based.

Exhibit 4

Exhibit 4

While institutional private equity funds predominate, investors of every kind show an interest in life science opportunities in Asia, in keeping with what LSN has learned from working with start-ups in the US and Europe. Whether seeking to increase their ROI or to move science forward, investors are willing to look far afield for the right place to allocate, and start-ups are discovering that it’s best not to limit their horizons when seeking capital.

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