Abingworth raises $582m for late-stage fund ACCD 2

Abingworth Clinical Co-Development Fund 2 (ACCD 2) was significantly oversubscribed, exceeding its target of US$350m. The ACCD 2 fund provides finance for the development of late-stage clinical programmes from biopharmaceutical companies. ACCD 2 will invest directly in late-stage product financing opportunities, as well as through its co-development portfolio companies Avillion (UK) and SFJ Pharmaceuticals (US).

SFJ and Avillion finance and facilitate clinical trial execution, using their operational expertise to increase the speed and quality of the trials. They incur all the clinical and regulatory risk and receive a pre-negotiated return once the drug is approved. To date, Abingworth has made eleven investments in co-development opportunities through Avillion and SFJ. Of the seven that have completed, six resulted in pre-negotiated pay-outs to the fund and five resulted in FDA drug approvals. Partnerships with AstraZeneca, Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Nektar Therapeutics and PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals are ongoing.

As part of the new fund closing, James Cornwall, PhD, has joined Abingworth as Partner in charge of business development for clinical co-development deals and will work alongside the Investment Partners. James has over 25 years’ pharmaceutical and CRO industry experience, including roles in clinical research and corporate development. He was formerly with Nuvelution, a structured finance investment vehicle, and Quintiles, a global CRO. 

In addition, David Simmons, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PPD, has been appointed as a Senior Advisor to Abingworth focusing on its clinical co-development strategy. David has nearly a decade of experience leading one of the world’s largest CROs as well as 15 years as a senior executive at Pfizer.

Asante Capital Group and Wise Capital Limited acted as global and regional placement advisors respectively for ACCD 2. Goodwin Procter acted as legal counsel.