Blackstone Life Sciences V closes on $4.6bn

Alessia Argentieri
13 July 2020

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Blackstone has held a final close for Blackstone Life Sciences V on its $4.6bn hard-cap.

This is Blackstone's first fund entirely dedicated to life sciences and the first raised by the firm after its acquisition of biomedical investment house Clarus, bought in October 2018 and renamed Blackstone Life Sciences.

Clarus had previously raised $2.6bn across four funds and inked more than 50 investments in the life science and tech health sectors, with a special focus on new medicines and medical devices.

"Our mission to bring innovative medicines to patients by drawing on our domain expertise and scale capital has resonated with investors," said Nicholas Galakatos, global head of Blackstone Life Sciences. "This has allowed us to close the largest life sciences-dedicated fund ever raised. With many more promising products in the life sciences industry's pipeline than capital available to advance them, we look forward to continuing to bring new treatment options and innovations to the patients who need them."

Investors
Blackstone Life Sciences V was oversubscribed and surpassed its original target. Its LP base includes several funds-of-funds, asset managers and pension funds, such as California State Teachers Retirement System, Orange County Employees Retirement System, Texas County and District Retirement System, and Teacher Retirement System of Texas, among others.

Investments
Blackstone Life Sciences V deploys equity tickets in the $50-500m range and expects to make between 20-30 investments.

The vehicle has three main investment strategies: collaborations with established life science companies; late-stage product financings; and growth investments in emerging companies.

The fund has already invested and committed nearly $1bn over the past three months, demonstrating strong demand for its strategy despite the pandemic.

Recent deals made by the fund include an investment in biotechnology company Alnylam, which included the acquisition of a royalty interest in inclisiran, a Novartis-owned medicine that reduces low-density lipoproteins; a $350m round led in June 2020 for Reata Pharmaceuticals to help advance the first potential medicine for Alport syndrome; and a $337m round for Medtronic's next generation of diabetes management products, which was the first investment by Blackstone Life Sciences in the medical devices space.

People
Blackstone – Nicholas Galakatos (global head of Blackstone Life Sciences).