Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF), a strategic investment fund backed by pharmaceutical firms Biogen, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, Pfizer and Takeda, has secured $50m ifrom Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
DDF, which is managed by venture capital firm SV Life Sciences, was launched in 2015 with $100m of funding from the corporates. It invests in technology that can improve the diagnosis and treatment of dementia.
The fund’s limited partners also include Astex Pharmaceuticals, a UK-based subsidiary of drug manufacturer Otsuka Group, the UK government’s Department of Health, medical charity Alzheimer’s Research UK, and Woodford Investment Management, which provided $19.1m in June 2017.
The new funding will be used for an expansion of DDF’s team that will include the appointment of a chief executive, and to support the development of therapies for Alzheimer’s disease. The fund plans to invest up to $230m in the next five years.
DDF has made 12 investments so far, leading a $29.5m series D round for antibody developer Alector in January 2016, taking part in neurodegenerative treatment developer Mitoconix’s $20m series A five months later, and contributing to a $7.5m seed round for small molecule drug developer Ribometrix earliet this month.
Patrick Vallance, president of research and development at GSK, said: “Dementia is one of the biggest challenges of global healthcare today and it is a challenge that is not going to be solved by working in silos.
“To address the growing burden of dementia, we must collaborate and invest in the early science to really enhance our understanding of the disease and its complex biology and then apply this knowledge in a way that is targeted towards making treatments.”