Taking a Page from Blackstone, Carlyle Sees Biotech Dreams in Buying Abingworth
Posted on 04/11/2022
Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) agreed to acquire Abingworth, a transatlantic life sciences investment firm with over US$ 2 billion in assets under management (AUM), to bolster Carlyle’s global healthcare franchise. This transaction will enable Carlyle to operate across the full risk-return spectrum of life sciences and healthcare investing, from venture capital to buyouts, and to continue Carlyle’s long-standing efforts to be an important part of the solution in healthcare.
Abingworth, with a local presence across the three key biotech hubs of London, Boston, and the San Francisco Bay Area, adds to Carlyle a team of over 20 investment professionals and advisors with deep scientific backgrounds and an established track record investing across early- and late-stage biotech companies to address significant, growing demand. Abingworth LLP (formerly Abingworth Management Ltd) was formed in 1973 by a pair of London stockbrokers who worked at Joseph Sebag & Co., Peter F. Dicks and Anthony Montagu. Abingworth had initially sought to extend its investments into the biotechnology industry in the late 1980s. Abingworth primarily invested in early-stage companies, specializing in technology start-up companies in the United States, and invested in such notable companies as Apple Computer (Apple Inc), Standard Micro Systems, Silicon Graphics, and 3COM. Peter Dicks was a Director of Abingworth between 1973 and 1992.
Abingworth has deployed US$ 3 billion of equity behind 179 life sciences companies through 14 dedicated life sciences funds. During this time, 73 portfolio companies have transitioned onto the public markets through initial public offerings (IPOs) and 46 companies have undergone a merger or acquisition. Importantly, 26 new medicines, developed by companies funded by and built by Abingworth, have been approved by the US Food & Drug Administration in the past nine years.
In addition to early- and development-stage investing, Abingworth participates in a clinical co-development strategy, an approach to partnering with pharma and biotech companies to help them finance and develop late-stage therapeutic assets in an accelerated manner. To further scale this strategy, Carlyle and Abingworth are forming Launch Therapeutics (Launch Tx), an operating company that will seek to partner with biotech and biopharma companies on funding and development of best‐in‐class late‐stage clinical assets to bring life‐saving therapies to market better, faster, and cheaper. Launch Tx’s objective is to bring forth regulatory, medical, and clinical operations expertise to eliminate inefficiencies in clinical development and accelerate path to market. Launch Tx will be led by industry veteran Anshul Thakral, former Chief Commercial Officer of PPD and a current Carlyle Operating Executive and Abingworth Venture Partner.
Carlyle has invested over US$ 22 billion across buyout and growth equity since inception, including businesses such as PPD, Adicon, Curia, Piramal, Saama, SeQuent, TriNetX, and Unchained Labs.
Carlyle’s acquisition of Abingworth is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in 2022. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.