A publicly-traded investment fund founded in 2001 and based in Switzerland invests in life science companies at both the developmental stage and also the growth/expansion stage, and usually makes 5-6 venture investments per year with half of their capital being deployed in the U.S. Only pre-clinical opportunities that are close to entering the clinic will be considered, however an exception may be made for novel/breakthrough science that has the possibility for a large syndicate. The firm’s early-stage investments are typically $5M-1$0M, and later-stage investments range from $10M-$25M. The firm invests primarily in Europe and the USA, but has also invested in Canada and is open to opportunities in the Middle East.
The firm invests primarily in therapeutics and is also interested in diagnostics, devices, and technologies with the potential to lead to therapeutic development (eg. drug discovery platforms). In the therapeutics field, the firm generally invests in clinical-stage opportunities. The firm invests in therapeutic areas where a result can be achieved with a reasonable amount of money, and therefore does not invest in highly capital-intensive therapeutic markets such as cardiovascular diseases, or large markets in metabolic disease such as diabetes or high cholesterol (smaller markets within metabolic disease may be of interest). Similarly, the fund typically avoids fields that are less well understood, such as CNS disorders or psychiatry. The firm is open to investing in orphan diseases.
In the devices and diagnostics field, the firm is open to investing in both companies with products under development and also companies with approved products that require commercialization-stage capital. For diagnostics, the firm focuses on innovative diagnostic technologies including biomarkers. As for medical devices, the firm focuses on devices that have a therapeutic application, including delivery devices, cardiac devices, and catheters; the firm prefers to invest in devices that require regulatory approval (Class 2 and 3 devices), rather than less regulated or disposable medical devices.
The firm invests in both private and public companies. Only U.S. companies with a headquarters on the West or East coast are considered. The fund has no fixed requirements for entrepreneurs but prefers to work with experienced management teams.
If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com
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