Frazier Healthcare Partners, a leading healthcare-focused investment firm founded in 1991, has announced the closing of Frazier Life Sciences VIII, L.P., a fund with $262mn in capital commitments that will invest exclusively in companies developing novel therapeutics.
Frazier Life Sciences VIII is the firm’s first sector-specific fund and brings the firm’s total committed capital under management to more than $2.4 bn.
The Frazier Life Sciences team invests primarily in therapeutics-focused companies developing and commercializing innovative biopharmaceuticals that address important unmet needs. The Frazier Life Sciences VIII team will continue to focus on investing across the spectrum of drug development ranging from early-stage, preclinical opportunities, to later-stage clinical development activities and specialty pharmaceutical companies. Company formation will remain a core strategy, with portfolio companies such as Calistoga Pharmaceuticals and Incline Therapeutics emerging from Frazier’s company creation practice.
‘Our ability to consistently and successfully execute our investment strategy with the same core investment team over multiple funds allowed us to raise this fund quickly,’ said Jamie Topper, managing general partner at Frazier. ‘It is also a testament to the inspiring entrepreneurs we have partnered with, in many cases across multiple companies, who have worked tirelessly to bring innovative new medicines to patients.’
‘We are grateful to our limited partners who were extremely supportive of a life sciences-dedicated offering,’ said Patrick Heron, managing general partner at Frazier. ‘We are pleased to have both the majority of our existing investors recommit to the fund and to welcome many new, high-quality investors.’
Recent Frazier Life Sciences IPOs and exits include Calibrium (acquired by Novo Nordisk), ProNAi (IPO: DNAi), Collegium (IPO: COLL), Cidara (IPO: CDTX), Tobira (merged with Regado), PreCision Dermatology acquired by Valeant), Rempex (acquired by The Medicines Company) and Incline (acquired by The Medicines Company). In addition, over 14 approved therapeutics have originated from Frazier Life Sciences-backed companies since 2010, including treatments for hematologic cancers (Zydelig), drug-resistant bacterial infections (Zerbaxa, Teflaro) and pain (Ofirmev, Ionsys).
