A firm that invests in healthcare and life sciences has raised more than a quarter of $1 billion for a new venture fund.
Boston-based RA Capital Management said Monday that it had closed its inaugural venture fund, RA Capital Nexus Fund, at more than $300 million, increasing its private deal capacity to nearly $1 billion and total assets under management to about $2.5 billion.
In a Form D posted Friday on the Securities and Exchange Commission website, the firm stated that the total amount sold was $308.15 million, domiciled in the U.S. Another Form D was posted on the SEC site the same day, for “RA Capital Nexus International Fund,” for $128.95 million, domiciled in the Cayman Islands.
In an emailed statement, the firm explained that it raised the fund using a master-feeder structure, with the Cayman Islands-domiciled fund serving as the offshore feeder fund, but still part of the aggregate $308.15 million amount.
“This is a unique time and place in biotech history,” RA Capital Managing Director Josh Resnick said in a statement. “As an industry, our ability to turn breakthrough science into transformative improvements in human health is unprecedented.”
The company said it expects to build companies whose products range from single assets to broad platforms, in areas such as neurology, oncology, cardiovascular disease and rare diseases. It has made more than 100 investments in private companies since 2012.
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.
Recent startups whose development the firm has supported include Frontier Medicines, which launched last month with a $67 million Series A round in which RA participated, to develop drugs for “undruggable” targets in oncology.
In March, RA took part in a $50 million Series B round that Prevail Therapeutics raised to develop gene therapies in Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative disorders.
And in February, RA and 5AM Ventures co-led a $42 million Series A round for Vor Biopharma, which is developing hematopoietic stem cells designed to be protected from targeted immunotherapies, in its efforts to bring a therapy for acute myeloid leukemia into the clinic. In February, 5AM announced that it had raised nearly $500 million in two new biotech venture funds that it planned to use for new investments and existing portfolio companies.
Photo: Feodora Chiosea, Getty Images
