JPMorgan Chase’s asset-management arm raised more than $500 million for a biotech venture-capital fund that will bet on the hottest corner of health care: weight-loss drugs.
The fund closed this month, and “the top three choices are obesity, obesity and obesity,” Steve Squinto, the chief investment officer of the unit’s life-sciences team, said in an interview.
GLP-1s, as the weight-loss drugs are known, “are all the rage,” and the field is “wide open,” Squinto said. “This has the opportunity to be a pivotal moment in the pharmaceutical industry.”
The new class of weight-loss drugs has exploded in popularity in recent months, with ballooning demand causing shortages. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly currently command the field, with list prices of $1,000 a month or more for a single user. As JPMorgan sees it, that presents an opening.
“It’s very unlikely that the future of obesity treatment will be dominated by a stable duopoly,” Gaurav Gupta, the fund’s managing partner, said in the interview. “There will be significant winners.”
JPMorgan hired Squinto and Gupta in late 2022 as its $3.6 trillion asset-management business launched the life-sciences team. The group has seven employees and sits within the bank’s private-capital business, which is part of a larger alternatives arm.
The first offering, 270 Life Sciences Private Capital Fund I, has made five investments so far, Squinto said, though just one of them has been announced publicly: leading a $100 million Series A financing round for La Jolla, California-based startup Enlaza Therapeutics. In addition to weight-loss therapies, the fund will make investments in areas such as oncology and immunology.
Hannah Levitt, Bloomberg , 2024-06-14 20:49:54
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