Deerfield Management, one of the busiest institutional players in the biotech scene, has rounded up $1.6 billion to back a new wave of biopharma companies, a major niche for this big healthcare gambler.
Deerfield Private Design III plans to play the field, with new investments being engineered in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, healthcare services and animal health. Coming at a time that the biotech IPO boom is delivering some strong returns for investors, it will more than double the amount Deerfield raised for its first two private funds, offering a cache of cash that can be used to back companies for some years to come. Deerfield also manages about $3 billion in public funds.
Just days ago Deerfield stepped in as a new investor for Kolltan, a New Haven, CT-based biotech developing cancer therapies, putting up part of a $60 million D round. It recently provided a $35 million loan, in tranches, to Cytomedix, offered up to $250 million in a bridge loan so that Horizon Pharma ($HZNP) can buy Vidara and bought a chunk of Infinity Pharmaceuticals' ($INFI) stock, also providing a $100 million credit facility to back its development work.
The investor has been agnostic about the tools it uses, providing equity and debt, buying royalty interests, executing joint ventures and pursuing other financing alternatives. And it works around the globe, with offices in New York, Lausanne and Shanghai.
"Deerfield is proud to play a leading role in advancing innovation in the development and delivery of healthcare products and services through investment, information and philanthropy. Few other industries can have such a profound impact on the quality and length of life," said James Flynn, the managing partner at Deerfield, in a statement.
- here's the release