| Firms that Finance Product Development | |||||
| Company | nvestment Model | Committed Capital ($M) | Amount invested ($M) | Investments | Ace in the Hole |
| Symphony Capital www.symphonycapital.com | Fund buys IP rights to compounds from a biotech or pharma company and develops compound in clinic. Company has option to buy back IP at set price and time. | $315 | $135 | Symphony Neuro Development Company (with Guilford Pharmaceuticals), Symphony Evolution (with Exelixis), Symphony GenIsis (with Isis Pharmaceuticals), Symphony Dynamo (with Dynavax Technologies) | Alastair Wood, Mark Kessel |
| TPG-Axon Capital | Uses some of the firm’s $6 billion to finance product development. No transfer of IP but provides cash, services, and sales force to help development. Royalties, milestones. | >$1,000 | ~$500 | Six undisclosed companies; one with NovaQuest | Founder Dinakar Singh was at Goldman-Sachs for 14 years, including as partner and head of the principal strategies department. |
| NovaQuest (formerly Pharmabio Development Group, a subsidiary of Quintiles Transnational), www.novaquest.com | No transfer of IP. NovaQuest puts up cash and services in return for milestones and royalties. | $1,500 | $750 | More than 60; one undisclosed collaboration with TPG-Axon Capital | World’s largest CRO, Quintiles Transnational, is the parent company. |
| Celtic Pharma www.celticpharma.com | Buys IP rights to products that are in the clinic from companies. No predetermined buy-back provision. Auctions the compound after clinical trials completed. | $250 | Undisclosed | Xenova (Berkshire, UK), Neurobiological Technologies (Emeryville, Calif.), Idea (Munich, Germany) | Founders Stephen Evans-Freke, former lead investment banker to Genentech and Amgen; and John Mayo, who led Zeneca’s spinoff and IPO in 1993 and later its merger with Astra in 1997. |
| Royalty Pharma www.royaltypharma.com | Pays upfront for long-term royalty streams of products that are on the market or still in the clinic. | $140 | $90 | Four products currently in the clinic: Lasofoxifene (Pfizer), alvimopan (GSK/Adolor), bazedoxifene and bazedoxifene/Premarin (Wyeth) | Pablo Legorreta, who had previously founded and managed investments in Neupogen and ReoPro royalty streams. |