US-based life sciences investment firm Adjuvant Capital raised $300m for an oversubscribed fund yesterday from investors including pharmaceutical firms Merck and Novartis.
Limited partners also include Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Anthos Fund and Asset Management, Beacon Pointe Advisors, CDC Group, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Dalio Philanthropies, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and Elma Investments.
Ford Foundation, International Finance Corporation, John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation, Global Health Investment Corporation – with funding from KfW –, Laerdal Million Lives Fund, RockCreek, Sonanz and Sorenson Impact Foundation have also invested.
The fund has also welcomed unnamed limited partners.
Launched in 2019, Adjuvant Capital’s fund is focusing on medical technologies aimed at public health issues that have traditionally struggled to attract venture capital funding. Areas of interest include malaria, tuberculosis and Lassa fever.
The fund has already backed 14 companies, such as US-based herpes vaccine developer X-Vax Technology, Austria-based vaccine developer Themis Bioscience and Denmark-based vaccine developer MinervaX.
Lutz Hegemann, group head for corporate affairs and global health at Novartis, said: “As a company focused on science-based innovation to address some of society’s most challenging healthcare issues, we are pleased to invest in Adjuvant Capital as part of our holistic global health strategy.
“Novartis is committed to systematically integrating access strategies into how we research, develop and deliver our new medicines to as many people as possible. Our investment in Adjuvant Capital complements these efforts, which we can only achieve through collaborations across sectors and industries.”
