Denmark-based pharmaceutical firm Novo will intensify its life science investments after generating DKK56bn ($9.3bn) in income and investment returns from its non-Novo investment portfolio in 2017.
The corporate, which operates subsdiaries Novo Ventures and Novo Seeds, provided approximately $2.3bn in pre and post-IPO funding for companies in 2017, including investments in Genoa Pharmaceuticals, E-Scape Bio and Northsea Therapeutics.
Novo also provided funding for publicly-listed portfolio companies including drug development alliance Evotec, laboratory diagnostics services provider Synlab and medical product supplier ConvaTec, which were jointly responsible for 79% of its investment.
In total, Novo added 12 new companies to its portfolio during the year, and the investments were complemented by 14 exits including women’s reproductive health therapy developer ObsEva, which generated $97m in a January initial public offering (IPO).
Kasim Kutay, chief executive of Novo Holdings, said: “We see a long-term positive trend for the life science industry and expect to continue increasing our investments in the coming years.
“The positive returns from our portfolio of life science investments and several successful exits and IPOs in recent years reinforce our optimism.”