New York-listed drugs company Watson Pharmaceuticals has provided at least half of Moksha8’s, a Brazil-based specialty pharmaceuticals company, fourth round of funding.
Watson has agreed to invest $30m for a minority stake in Moksha8 and a marketing agreement to access Brazil and Mexico. Watson has also agreed to take a board seat at Moksha8 and invest a further $20m for an increased equity stake if the portfolio company can agree third-party acquisitions.
Excluding this contingent acquisition fund, Moksha8 raised $61m from Watson and its existing financial investors, TPG Biotechnology and Montreux Equity Partners.
Votorantim Novos Negócios, the corporate venturing division of one of Latin America’s largest private industrial conglomerates, is also listed on Moksha8’s website as an investor. Moksha8 closed its series C round at $25m in January led by Montreux and including existing investor TPG Biotechnology, the life sciences venture capital division of private equity firm TPG, and its founder and then chief executive Simba Gill,
Moksha8, which is an amalgamation of the Sanskrit word for liberation and the number eight for luck and constant renewal, had raised $39m in its earlier rounds, according to news provider BioCentury.