The US Ivy League institution has had some recent successful exits of life science spinouts.
The University of Pennsylvania in the US has formed a $50m life sciences venture fund in partnership with German biopharmaceutical company BioNTech and Osage University Partners, a university spinout investor.
The PxB Fund (Penn BioNTech Innovative Therapeutics Seed Fund) will invest in early stage life science companies based on the university’s intellectual property and/or founded by Penn researchers. The fund focuses on seed and series A investments in therapeutics, diagnostics, platforms and research tools.
BioNTech, which co-developed one of the first approved mRNA vaccines for covid 19, has a longstanding research and development partnership with the University of Pennsylvania. Through the PxB Fund, BioNTech aims to deepen its collaboration with the univesrity and increase its visibility into emerging therapeutics, according to a release.
The fund will be managed by Osage University Partners (OUP), a US-based venture capital firm that invests in startups from research labs and universities. It partners with more than 150 universities and has more than $800m in assets under management.
The University of Pennsylvania has had some recent exits of biotech spinouts including Capstan Therapeutics, which was acquired by pharmaceutical company AbbVie, and Interius BioTherapeutics, which was bought by Kite Pharma, a US developer of cancer immunotherapy products.
The University of Pennsylvania formed a separate $10m seed fund in December which will invest in startups founded by faculty members and researchers.
The evergreen fund, called StartUP Fund, is backed entirely by the university and will provide seed-stage capital to startups across the university’s research community.
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