Pureos Bioventures closes US$170m fund

Pureos Bioventures’ founding partners Klaus Breiner, Dominik Escher, and Martin Münchbach didn’t disclose specific names of investors who committed to invest, but announced they include pharma-  and biotech companies as well as a large contract manufacturer, and family offices, institutional investors, and fund-of-funds. The BB Pureos Bioventures LP fund will exclusively invest in innovative private drug development companies with an emphasis on novel biologicals and modalities such as nucleic acid, cell, and gene therapies. The fund invests globally, with a primary focus on Switzerland and Europe, into drug developers addressing unmet medical need in oncology, immunology, ophthalmology, rare diseases, and neurolorgy. 

Pureos’ managers aim at building a portfolio of 15-20 pre-clinical and clinical-stage companies.  Initial investments include Alentis Therapeutics AG (fibrosis), AM-Pharma BV (sepsis/nephrology), Eyevensys SAS (retinal diseases), Imcheck Therapeutics SAS (oncology/autoimmune diseases), Lava Therapeutics BV (oncology, T cell engagers), NovaGo Therapeutics AG (diabetic retinopathy) and Vico Therapeutics BV (orphan CNS diseases). Pureos is a partner of BaseLaunch, a start-up accelerator in Basel, which also is dedicates to translating ground-breaking science into novel companies.