Investors in the fund include a variety of existing and new limited partners, both groups made up of specialized institutional and corporate investors.
Forbion, a European life sciences venture capital firm, announced its fifth fund, Forbion V. It has €460 million, or $545 million (U.S.), to invest in life sciences companies. Investors in the fund include a variety of existing and new limited partners, both groups made up of specialized institutional and corporate investors. They include Pantheon, Wilshire Associates, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Argentum.
Forbion’s offices are in The Netherlands, Germany, and Singapore. It is focused on the life sciences, particularly in the biopharma space. It currently manages more than €1.7 billion.
With the new fund, it plans to invest about 15 therapeutics companies, with about a third created by Forbion, what they call “Build” opportunities. They will be designed either around assets that come out of biotech or academia, or around proven management teams. The rest, they say, will be invested in “highly impactful existing companies.”
They expect about 80% of their investments will be in European companies, with the remaining 20% in North American startups. It typically plans initial stakes of 20 to 50%.
Recent exits have included Roche’s acquisition of Promedior for up to $1.39 billion with an upfront payment of $390 million, and Roche also acquiring the full rights to the Inflazome portfolio of NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors for €380 million plus milestones.
Of the Inflazome deal, Matt Cooper, Inflazome’s chief executive officer, stated in September 2020, “We are delighted to close this deal with Roche, an outstanding pharmaceutical company with a broad commitment to multiple indications. With Inflazome now part of the Roche organization, Inflazome’s pioneering molecules are well positioned to be developed quickly and effectively so they can help patients suffering from debilitating diseases.”
Roche was also involved in another Forbion-supported company, acquiring Enterprise Therapeutics’ novel TMEM16A potentiator portfolio for £75 million plus milestones. The TMEM16A portfolio is geared toward treating all people with cystic fibrosis, as well as for treatment of severe respiratory diseases marked by excessive mucus congestion.
Another recent exit was KaNDy Therapeutics, which was acquired by Bayer for $425 million up front and a potential $450 million in milestone payments. The key to the deal was a mid-stage asset, NT-814, a potential first-in-class, orally administered once-daily, neurokinin-1,3 receptor antagonist that has shown promising responses for the treatment of moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms due to menopause. These include hot flashes and night sweats. A Phase III trial is expected to initiate in 2021 and Bayer has reported the treatment could be worth about $1.18 billion globally.
“Bayer has been our preferred partner due to its leading position in the area of women’s healthcare,” said Mary Kerr, co-founder and chief executive officer of KaNDy Therapeutic, in August. “We believe that under the ownership of Bayer, this potential first-in-class medicine can be optimally developed to become an important non-hormonal treatment option for women suffering vasomotor symptoms due to menopause.”
Another exit is Dyne Therapeutics’ initial public offering. Forbion’s recent investments include $62 million Series A for Prilenia Therapeutics and $35 million Series B for Inversago Pharma.
Sander Slootweg, Forbion’s Managing Partner, said, “2020 has been an exceptional year in many respects; positive, in terms of our successful divestments as well as promising new investments, and challenging, in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic currently impacting society at large. As a result of the latter, we have seen the level of investor interest in novel medicines, vaccines and other biotech solutions that will impact mankind, markedly increase.”
