venBio's $315m Pharma-Backed Fund Seeks Broad Range Of Investments

May 06 2016

• By Mandy Jackson

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VenBio has $315m in new cash to invest in a broad array of therapeutics developers now that it has closed its second venture capital fund, which raised $65m more than the VC firm originally intended and reflects big pharma's increasing commitment to backing early-stage life science companies.

Amgen Inc. and Baxalta Inc., limited partners (LPs) in venBio's first fund, returned as investors in the firm's second fund known as Global Strategic Fund II with Merck & Co. Inc. as another industry insider LP. But while San Francisco-based VenBio may benefit from its investors' insights during due diligence, it doesn't base its investment decisions on its partners' research and development pipeline needs. The firm's focus is companies with preclinical and clinical therapeutic candidates that fulfill unmet medical needs.

The new fund already has invested in four companies: the cancer immunotherapy developer Checkmate Pharmaceuticals LLC, which closed a...

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