Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: Blackstone Group closed its inaugural life sciences fund, Blackstone Life Sciences V (BXLS V), at its hard cap of $4.6 billion, making it the largest life sciences private fund raised till date.
Blackstone Life Sciences (BLS) invests in established life science companies, finances late-stage products, and makes growth investments in emerging life-science companies.
The unit has already invested about $1 billion from the fund over the past three months with bets on drugs that target high cholesterol, kidney disease in children and devices for diabetes patients, according to a filing Thursday by the New York-based company.
Blackstone Group launched BLS in 2018 after it acquired Clarus, a life-sciences private equity manager, which had raised $2.6 billion since its founding in 2005. Its final fund before the acquisition by Blackstone was Clarus IV, which closed at $910 million in 2017.
Nicholas Galakatos, Ph.D., Global Head of Blackstone Life Sciences, said, "Our mission to bring innovative medicines to patients by drawing on our domain expertise and scale capital has resonated with investors. With many more promising products in the life sciences industry's pipeline than capital available to advance them, we look forward to continuing to bring new treatment options and innovations to the patients who need them."
Investors include the California State Teachers' Retirement System, West Sacramento; Texas Teacher Retirement S...................... To view our full article Click here
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