LSP Dementia Fund closes at €260m
EQT Life Sciences has closed the LSP Dementia Fund at approximately €260m, 2.6-fold over the target fund size of €100m.
Investors included the Alzheimer’s Association, the European Investment Fund EIF, several unnamed global pharmaceutical, and insurance companies, which underlines the industry’s interest in European life sciences venture opportunities. The Fund is aimed to bring new treatments to patients suffering from dementia.
The fund is dedicated to investing in companies developing breakthrough drug therapies and medical technologies across the spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases. Dementia is the greatest health challenge of our time: there are 54 million patients with the disease worldwide, and without significant time and investment in battling the disease, this number is predicted to triple by 2050. Despite the graveness of the situation, investment in dementia research and development is substantially lower compared to other major healthcare challenges such as cancer, HIV/AIDS, and cardiovascular diseases.
The LSP Dementia Fund has been created to help bridge this gap by advancing breakthrough dementia innovation to bring new drugs to patients, while simultaneously seeking to generate strong financial returns for its investors. The Fund intends to invest in 10 to 15 companies in total. Having made its first investment in NewAmsterdam Pharma, which focuses on cardiovascular and Alzheimer’s disease, in January 2021, the fund has since invested in four companies: Muna Therapeutics (Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease), AviadoBio (Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)), Nobi (smart care solutions in nursing homes) and QurAlis (FTD and ALS).
