Carlyle to Acquire Abingworth Life Sciences Investment Firm
By Greg Cornfield April 19, 2022 1:55 pm
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Global investment firm Carlyle agreed to acquire Abingworth, a transatlantic life sciences investment firm with more than $2 billion in assets under management, to strengthen its health care franchise.
Carlyle and Abingworth will form an operating company named Launch Therapeutics (Launch Tx) to partner with biotech and biopharma companies on funding and development of best‐in‐class, late‐stage clinical assets to bring therapies to market. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Abingworth’s existing footprint extends across the three key biotech hubs of Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area and London, and includes early- and late-stage biotech companies. Abingworth has injected $3 billion of equity into 179 life sciences companies through 14 dedicated life sciences funds, and 26 new medicines in the past nine years.
“The COVID-19 pandemic shed light on the increased need for expertise and access to capital to fund the development and commercialization of innovative health care and life sciences solutions in the years to come,” said Steve Wise, Carlyle’s global head of health care.
Carlyle has invested more than $22 billion across buyout and growth equity in health care since inception.
“We see a strong market need for a clinical development company that can bring access to capital, global resources and deep operational expertise to biotech and biopharma companies looking to advance therapeutic candidates through clinical trials and regulatory approval,” said Anshul Thakral, CEO of Launch Tx. “I’m thrilled to partner with the entire Carlyle and Abingworth organizations to form Launch Therapeutics.”
Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.
