Dive Brief:
- Venture capital firm Sofinnova Ventures, which invests exclusively in life science companies, revealed in a regulatory filing it has raised $595 million for its latest fund.
- The fund, Sofinnova's tenth so far, exceeds the $500 million the firm raised in 2014, underscoring the availability of capital to biotech.
- Sofinnova was hoping to raise $650 million for the fund, however. Its previous fund exceeded expectations.
Dive Insight:
San Francisco-based biotech investment firm Sofinnova is ready to make a new round of investments.
The firm, not to be confused with its former parent company France-based Sofinnova Partners, has been a major investment force behind some of the most high-profile biotechs of recent years.
The company has been an investor in SARcode, the eye drug maker that was acquired by Shire for $160 million, as well as NextWave, the maker of ADHD drugs that was picked up by Pfizer in 2012 for $700 million.
The company has also made investments in Hyperion, Tesaro, Aerie and more recently, gene therapy company Audentes Therapeutics, which raised $75 million in a recent IPO.
While the IPO window has largely closed during the first half of 2016 after a record number of public offerings in the two years prior, venture capital funding for biotechs has remained strong. Companies in the space have had little trouble raising funds, particularly in hot areas of immuno-oncology and gene therapy.