SV Life Sciences Raises Over US $523 Million for Fifth Fund, SV Life Sciences Fund V

BOSTON, SAN FRANCISCO, and LONDON, June 29 /PRNewswire/ -- SV Life Sciences (SVLS) today announced the final closing of its newest fund – SV Life Sciences Fund V (SVLSF V). The fund closed with total commitments of over $523 million, well exceeding its target of $400 million.  SVLSF V, SVLS' fifth international life sciences fund, brings the firm's total funds under management to over $2.0 billion, making SVLS one of the largest venture capital investment groups dedicated to the life sciences sector.

The diversified investment strategy of SVLSF V remains consistent with that of earlier funds.  SVLSF V will be focused on providing start-up, early stage and expansion capital to life sciences companies in the United States and Europe. SVLSF V will invest across a range of life sciences sectors, including biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, medical devices, healthcare services and healthcare information technology (HIT). Anticipated investment size will typically be between $5 million and $35 million.  

James Garvey, Chairman and Managing Partner of SV Life Sciences in Boston, commented: "We experienced considerable success in fundraising despite a challenging economic climate, especially for venture capital firms, which have endured a difficult period for raising capital. We were convinced that the strength and proven track record of our team would enable us to pursue a fund in this environment. Investors were attracted by SVLS' diversified strategy and consistent record of success, with the firm realizing sales of portfolio investments across all three sectors in 2009. We are encouraged to have raised a similar size of fund to SVLSF IV which enjoyed considerably more favorable economic conditions in 2007."  

Kate Bingham, Managing Partner of SV Life Sciences in London, said: "One goal in raising SVLSF V was to first retain existing relationships but also use the opportunity to further diversify our investor base. Investors responded well to our broad strategy and history of active management. We have attracted 22 high quality new investors including well-known private and public pension funds, fund of funds investors, and foundations, endowments, and family offices. The support of our long-term investors provided the platform for our success in this effort and we are very grateful for their continued support."

Consistent with prior funds, approximately 60 percent of capital commitments came from the United States and 40 percent from Europe and the rest of the world.

Managing partners of the SVLS investment team include James Garvey, Kate Bingham, Lutz Giebel, Eugene Hill, David Milne, and Michael Ross. They are supported by partners Darren Black, Graham Boulnois, David Guyer and Denise Marks as well as a strong group of venture partners.  The SVLS team are a well established group of investment professionals whose complementary backgrounds and expertise span the full range of the life sciences industry and balances investing expertise with deep operating experience at both private and publicly-traded life sciences companies.

SVLS has invested in the life sciences industry since the early 1980s and has backed over 200 public and private life sciences companies globally to date from the venture funds and a listed investment trust. The existing venture funds, SV Life Sciences Funds I, II, III and IV, were closed in 1994, 1999, 2003 and 2007, respectively, with total committed capital of over $1.4 billion. SVLS also manages International Biotechnology Trust plc (Ticker: IBT), a London Stock Exchange listed investment trust with a market cap of $150 million.

SV Life Sciences has US offices in Boston and the San Francisco Bay Area, and a European office in London. For additional information on SVLS, please visit www.svlsa.com.

Notes to Editors: SV Life Sciences* (SVLS) was established in 1993, in London and Boston, to take advantage of the global nature of the life sciences opportunity and to enable active deal leadership in the key markets. The SVLS team is composed of 32 professionals with extensive life sciences investment, strategic, operational, scientific and clinical experience.

In addition to SV Life Sciences Fund V, SVLS manages four other private equity funds, SVLS Funds I, II, III and IV.  These funds provide start-up, early stage and expansion capital to life sciences companies in North America and Europe. Approximately half of the investments have been in the biotech sector with the remaining half split equally between the medical device and healthcare service sectors.  This broad sector, stage and regional diversification and capability, which will be continued in SVLS Fund V, is relatively unique when compared to other peer life sciences focused venture capital funds. Further information is available at www.svlsa.com.

SVLS also has a capability in the public markets with a dedicated team that manages International Biotechnology Trust plc, a publicly quoted investment trust listed on the London Stock Exchange (Ticker: IBT), with a total net asset value of approximately $150 million.  IBT primarily invests in high growth, development stage public life sciences companies with an emphasis on small cap US biotechnology companies. Further information is available at www.internationalbiotrust.com.

SVLS has enjoyed many significant exits since 2004 including:

US/EU Biotech: the IPO of Eyetech Pharmaceuticals (EYET), sale of GlycoFi to Merck, sale of PowerMed to Pfizer, sale of Rinat Neuroscience to Pfizer, sale of Solexa (SLXA) to Illumina, sale of Alantos Pharmaceuticals to Amgen, sale of ESBATech to Alcon, and the June 2010 sale of RespiVert to Centocor.

Medical Devices: IPO of Insulet (PODD), sale of Confluent Surgical to Covidien, and the sale of Liposonix to Medicis.

Healthcare Services: sale of Interplan to the Parker Group, sale of Synarc to Den Danske, sale of Physicians Dialysis to DaVita.

For a complete list of current investments please see the SVLSA website at www.svlsa.com.

*In the UK, SV Life Sciences is a trading name of SV Life Sciences Advisers LLP which is authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Services Authority as an investment adviser.

SOURCE SV Life Sciences