Canaan Partners has announced a new $600 million fund of which one-third will be dedicated to medical device, biopharmaceuticals and diagnostics investing.
About a quarter of the investments will likely be outside the United States, primarily Israel and India. Most of the investments will be in early and seed-stage companies.
Its most recent life science exit is Advanced BioHealing, which was acquired by Shire for $750 million in 2011. Its healthcare portfolio includes the stroke treatment company CoAxia, spinal disorder company SpineWave, and pulmonary disease company Elevation Pharmaceuticals.
Canaan will invest at any point in a company’s life, and will dedicate anywhere from $1 million to $20 million to portfolio companies. It describes its biopharmaceuticals investments as:
- Therapeutics and vaccines with a special emphasis on combating infectious diseases
- Companies with drugs that can be repurposed or reformulated
- Sectors with reduced development and commercialization risk
- Platform technologies that address multiple product opportunities
It looks for medical device investments around:
- Novel, next generation devices to treat major diseases
- Devices that target chronic diseases and diseases of aging
- Companies pursuing therapies that are less invasive than current approaches
- Areas where there is strong consumer demand for therapies
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
It was diagnostics that are:
- Tied to specific, personalized therapies
- Implantable sensors that provide real-time health information
- Technologies that provide ongoing diagnoses for chronic diseases
- From companies with an expedited regulatory path and minimized commercialization risk
[Photo from Flickr user Amagill]
