Omega Funds has raised $438 million to place another round of bets on biopharma companies. The fund, Omega’s sixth, will follow the same blueprint as earlier investment vehicles, pumping money into businesses across the U.S. and Europe at all stages from company creation to public markets.
Across its 15-year history, Omega Funds has had a hand in a clutch of high-profile biotechs such as Editas Medicine and Juno Therapeutics. Omega Funds has also been in the game long enough to have seen a clutch of drugs it supported come to market. AbbVie’s Viekira Pak, Amgen’s Imlygic and FibroGen’s roxadustat all came to market after receiving early assists from Omega Funds.
That track record has helped Omega Funds raise its largest investment vehicle to date, reeling in $438 million to invest in companies targeting indications across oncology, immunology, rare diseases and other areas.
“We believe this is the most exciting time to be investing in life sciences in a generation, but it requires diverse skills to capture the opportunity set. At Omega, we have thoughtfully assembled a team that has the experience, insights and connections needed to successfully identify and harvest innovation from both sides of the Atlantic,” Otello Stampacchia, managing director of Omega Funds, said in a statement.
Omega Funds is set to add to its team in January, bringing Bernard Davitian on board as a partner. Davitian previously worked as managing director at Sanofi Ventures. Earlier in his career, Davitian held positions at European biotechs including Fovea Pharmaceuticals and Transgene. The hiring of Davitian comes months after Omega Funds appointed Deirdre Cunnane, formerly of Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, as its chief operating officer.
The new team will follow an established playbook, operating across the U.S. and Europe and being agnostic to the stage at which they get involved with a company. Omega Funds will use some of the money to create companies but is equally open to investing in publicly traded businesses.