Eli Lilly has taken the unusual step of investing in Epidarex Capital's new, $80 million life sciences fund, with an eye to backing the Scotland-based group's portfolio of academic spinouts. This was Lilly's ($LLY) first investment in a U.K. venture fund, says Epidarex, joining a group of more traditional backers including King's College London and several other research universities as well as Scottish Enterprise.
Epidarex may be based in the U.K., but it has invested in biotechs on both sides of the Atlantic. Its portfolio includes Apellis Pharmaceuticals in Louisville, KY, and Edinburgh Molecular Imaging in Scotland.
Lilly isn't usually found in this kind of international crowd. The pharma giant has been struggling to land new drug approvals after a long dry spell on the FDA front, and CEO John Lechleiter is one of the few major league pharma CEOs to remain committed primarily to his own internal efforts in Indiana years after most of his rivals embraced this sort of open ecosystem approach to R&D.
Epidarex is a new player in the field. The Telegraph reports that Managing Partner Sinclair Dunlop returned to Scotland after a stint in the U.S. to start the firm, which was originally called Rock Spring Ventures.
The added startup cash will be welcome in the U.K., which has extensive drug research operations under GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK), AstraZeneca ($AZN) and others, with a world-class group of scientists operating in the Golden Triangle of London, Oxford and Cambridge. What it lacks is a vibrant biotech core, which has been blighted by the exits of several top names after they failed on the research front.
"This investment reflects Lilly's strong belief in the excellence of life science research and development in the U.K. and will complement our own R&D and existing academic partnerships to help make life better for patients around the world," said Elaine Sullivan, vice president of global external R&D at Lilly, in a statement.
- here's the release
- read the report from The Telegraph
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