Longitude Capital, a life science investment firm targeting mostly mid to late stage companies with about one quarter for early stage businesses, has made its first close for Longitude Venture Partners III, raising a total of $525 million, according to a company statement.
In a phone interview with Longitude Founder and Managing Director Marc Galletti, he said it would begin making investments from the newsest fund starting in the third quarter.
“We invest in exciting life science companies that can hit exciting milestones within three to five years of investment.”
Behavioral Health, Interoperability and eConsent: Meeting the Demands of CMS Final Rule Compliance
In a webinar on April 16 at 1pm ET, Aneesh Chopra will moderate a discussion with executives from DocuSign, Velatura, and behavioral health providers on eConsent, health information exchange and compliance with the CMS Final Rule on interoperability.
Galletti highlighted some of the technologies in which it has demonstrated an interest, such as ophthalmology, mitrovalve repair, food allergies, oncology and neurostimulation.
It helped start Aimmune, a publicly traded biotech business developing a treatment for peanut allergies affecting children that’s in phase three development. It also invested in Twelve, a medical device company that developed a transcatheter mitrovalve replacement device that Medtronic acquired last year.
Its more recent investments include participation in a $65 million Series A round for Aptinyx, a spinout of Naurex, which Allergan acquired in August last year.
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.
In April it invested in Kala Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company developing ophthalmology products such as a treatment for pain and inflammation following cataract surgery.
Photo: Flickr user Peasap
