News

Olivia Schwern – Associate @ J.P. Morgan | Life Sciences Private Capital

Our take from Q3, in short:

• Attracting new LP capital is still a feat. According to Carta, less than 10% of 2021 private funds have returned any capital to their LPs after three years, limiting allocators’ ability to assess new opportunities.
• Healthcare has been a consistent bright spot. Over 1-in-4 LP dollars deployed into VC in 2024 have gone into healthcare-focused funds – the highest share in over five years.
• This dynamic has led to a revival in deal activity. If the current pace holds, private healthcare companies will raise ~$70 billion in 2024, an impressive >40% pickup from last year.
• Valuations continued to find support. We still believe life sciences investors today are more likely to get into quality companies at attractive prices relative to recent years.
• Finally, the healthcare exit market is staging a comeback. Q3 saw 97 VC-backed companies exit – 18 via IPO, 79 via M&A.
  

COLUMBIA, Md., (October 10, 2024) — TEDCO, Maryland’s economic engine for technology companies, announced a recent $100,000 Pre-Seed Builder Fund investment in PerSoN, a company creating digital health solutions to support complex mental health conditions. Businesses receiving an investment from TEDCO’s Pre-Seed Builder Fund, housed under TEDCO’s Social Impact Funds, receive access to a variety of benefits designed to nurture business growth.

BURLINGTON, Mass., October 09, 2024–(BUSINESS WIRE)–MilliporeSigma, the U.S. and Canada Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, has opened its new €290 million biosafety testing facility in Rockville, Maryland, USA. Biosafety testing and analytical development are fundamental components of drug development and commercialization for traditional and novel modalities. Global demand for these services is growing at a double-digit rate¹.

Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., was ranked as a top hospital in the nation by the U.S. News & World Report 2024-25 Best Children’s Hospitals annual rankings. This marks the eighth straight year Children’s National has made the Honor Roll list. The Honor Roll is a distinction awarded to only 10 children’s hospitals nationwide.

This year, U.S. News ended ordinal rankings on its Honor Roll. Instead of assigning a numerical rank from 1 to 10, all hospitals on the Honor Roll will be recognized as having attained the highest standards of care in the nation.

I

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., October 8, 2024 — AMPEL BioSolutions announced a precision medicine blood test that could save lives by predicting heart disease before it happens and providing decision support for prophylactic therapies.  Inflammatory and immune system abnormalities identified in the blood of individuals predisposed to heart disease by AMPEL two years ago were confirmed and extended in the peer-reviewed Cell iScience paper announced today. Examination of genes expressed in single cells isolated from atherosclerotic coronary artery plaques revealed biomarkers that can be measured by AMPEL’s CardioGENE^® blood test.

Program aims to reduce drug safety failure rate and improve efficacy prediction before clinical trials start 

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), today announced a new funding opportunity through its Computational ADME-Tox and Physiology Analysis for Safer Therapeutics (CATALYST) program. CATALYST intends to create human physiology-based computer models to accurately predict safety and efficacy profiles for Investigational New Drug (IND) candidates.  

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s R. Andrew Bauer and Fulton Bank’s Joe Durham will be the morning keynote at the upcoming premier event

COLUMBIA, Md., (October 3, 2024) — TEDCO, Maryland’s economic engine for technology companies, announced the two morning keynote speakers for its Entrepreneur Expo – R. Andrew (“Andy”) Bauer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and Joe Durham of Fulton Bank. The upcoming event will take place on December 4, 2024, at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel.