Lundbeck Foundation shifts into new biotech gear: New unit raises ambitions in Denmark
Lundbeckfonden BioCapital is the foundation’s new unit for biotech investments. The unit combines the foundation’s existing portfolio of biotech companies while sharpening focus on the Danish biotech community. The objective is to pave the way for more healthcare successes based in Denmark.
With the establishment of Lundbeckfonden BioCapital, Lundbeck Foundation seeks to boost investments in Danish biotech, and the investment framework will expand over the coming years to DKK 4 billion.
This step increases Lundbeck Foundation’s focus on and involvement in Danish biotech companies while improving opportunities for companies to supply new solutions and treatments for patients in the future.
‘We have a strong and attractive biotech community in Denmark, with the potential to develop even more healthcare companies and further reinforce Denmark’s leading position as a life science nation. We want to support this growth, which is why we are boosting our investments in Danish biotech with Lundbeckfonden BioCapital,’ says Lene Skole, CEO of Lundbeck Foundation.
2030 strategy charts a new course
The development of Danish biotech companies plays a key role in Lundbeck Foundation’s 2030 strategy.
‘As a commercial foundation, we are an engaged owner of Danish healthcare companies, and our goal for 2030 is to own more healthcare companies based or with activities in Denmark. To this end, we also want to be part of the growth journey for emerging companies in the Danish biotech community which in the slightly longer term have the potential to take root in the market and ensure growth and workplaces in Denmark – for example, as foundation-owned healthcare companies,’ explains Lene Skole.
The new head of Lundbeckfonden BioCapital, Christian Elling, expands on this.
‘We already have a strong portfolio of Danish biotech companies, which we’ve followed and supported from their early years, but in coming years, we will focus even more on identifying and cultivating promising Danish start-ups which can, in the long term, develop into mature biotech companies with the potential to become important players within healthcare,’ says the Managing Partner at Lundbeckfonden BioCapital.
‘This is why we’re raising our ambitions even more and directing more of our efforts towards seeking out good investment opportunities, supporting them on their growth journey, and attracting more investors from our great network, as well as putting even more energy into strengthening collaboration between the private sector and public research at universities in Denmark,’ explains Christian Elling.
Combining all biotech companies in one portfolio
Lundbeck Foundation is combining all activities in the existing units for direct biotech investments – Lundbeckfonden Ventures and Lundbeckfonden Emerge – in a single portfolio: Lundbeckfonden BioCapital.
The two investment units have previously had separate focus areas, with Lundbeckfonden Ventures investing in a larger portfolio of companies within life science on the global market, especially in the USA and Europe, and Lundbeckfonden Emerge concentrating primarily on early-stage investments in Danish biotech.
‘Lundbeckfonden BioCapital will continue to work actively with our international investments, and we will continue to be a stable and active partner for our existing portfolio companies and our other international partners. In this way, Lundbeckfonden Ventures’ activities will also become an active part of the portfolio in the new team,’ concludes Christian Elling.
About Lundbeckfonden BioCapital
Lundbeckfonden BioCapital comprises the collected activities in the Lundbeckfonden Ventures and Emerge investment units and currently has investments in Danish and international portfolio companies totalling more than DKK 2 billion. Lundbeck Foundation expects to expand the investment framework to DKK 4 billion by 2030.
Today there are 20 companies in the Lundbeckfonden BioCapital investment portfolio, distributed over much of the western world: approximately one-third in the USA, one-third in Denmark and one-third in the rest of Europe.
Lundbeck Foundation has helped promote a number of Danish biotech companies in recent years, including SNIPR Biome, which works with CRISPR technology and which recently entered into a collaboration with the highly esteemed American hospital M.D. Anderson, and IO Biotech, a Nasdaq-listed company that develops immunotherapy for treating cancer.
Mette Kirstine Agger, Managing Partner at Lundbeckfonden Ventures, will leave the Lundbeck Foundation to embark on a new chapter in her...
The Lundbeck Foundation is a commercial foundation encompassing a comprehensive range of commercial and philanthropic activities – all united by its strong purpose; Bringing Discoveries to Lives. The Foundation is the long-term and engaged owner of several international healthcare companies – Lundbeck, Falck and ALK – and an active investor in business, science and people through its commercial investments in the financial markets; in biotech companies based on Danish research and through philanthropic grants to science talents and programmes in Danish universities and hospitals. The Foundation’s philanthropic grants amount to more than DKK 500m annually primarily focusing on the brain – including the world’s largest personal prize for neuroscience, The Brain Prize.
