Tag: healthcare
Company News: Oberland Capital Raises $425 Million Healthcare Royalty and Credit Opportunities Fund
– Significantly Exceeds Target –
Oberland Capital, an investment firm focused on the global healthcare industry, announced today the closing of its inaugural royalty and credit opportunities fund, Oberland Capital Healthcare, with $425 million in capital commitments.
Oberland Capital provides healthcare companies, institutions and inventors customized financing solutions with an emphasis on the biopharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostic sectors. The fund targets investments ranging from $15 million to $100 million and has the ability to execute substantially larger transactions.
“We are grateful for the support shown by our limited partners in helping us to significantly surpass the $350 million target size for our first fund. The strong response from investors is a testament to the quality and experience of our investment team and the demand for non-correlated investment strategies. We look forward to building a diversified portfolio of attractive healthcare investments,” said Andrew Rubinstein, Managing Partner.
The development and commercialization of breakthrough medical technologies is highly capital intensive, creating a large market opportunity for Oberland Capital Healthcare. “Our flexible, long-term financing solutions provide an attractive source of capital to healthcare companies, institutions and inventors,” added Jean-Pierre Naegeli, Managing Partner. “We are excited to work with our transaction partners worldwide to enable them to meet their strategic and financial objectives.”
Investors in Oberland Capital Healthcare include public and corporate pension plans, financial institutions, foundations and endowments located throughout the United States and Europe.
Food for Thought: Crowd-funding – A Useful Financing Strategy for Healthcare Companies?
Crowd-funding is a widely discussed and disputed financing approach these days. It has proven to work in many industries, including the entertainment sector. But what implications will it have for the healthcare industry? Will it have any impact on healthcare at all?
So far, there are only few examples of crowd-funded healthcare ventures. One of them is the Rare Genomics Institute, a US-based non-profit organization dedicated to providing better and faster diagnostics and therapies for rare diseases. They decided for a personalized approach by putting up individual cases of rare disease sufferers on their website and organizing funding for the diagnosis and treatment of the affected patients. Thereby, Rare Genomics Institute provides treatment opportunities for patients who otherwise would not be able to pay their medical bills, as these kind of therapies (and diagnostics) are usually not funded by healthcare providers.
What seems to work as a fundraising approach for individual cases in the US still has to prove its viability in other regions of the world – and in a larger healthcare context. Could expensive drug development eventually be financed by crowd-funding? According to an article in Genetic Engineering News, there is currently not much evidence that biopharmaceutical companies could benefit from crowd-funding, as their financing requirements are significant and long-term oriented. In fact, there are only very few examples of biopharmaceutical companies which have managed to close a financing by crowd-funding, e.g. cancer immune therapy company Urodelia (France). However, the financing volume has not been disclosed. Others, like AMD Therapy (Germany), a fund dedicated to finance the development of novel therapeutics to combat age-related macular degeneration, or Selexel (France), which is developing cancer therapies based on RNA interference, are still raising funds. Interestingly, AMD Therapy aims to raise as much as EUR 60 million by crowd-funding – much more than other biopharma companies in Europe were able to raise by private equity financing during the past 12 months.
At the end of the day, many questions are still unanswered. Will private sponsors continue to be willing to pay a stranger´s medical bills in the long run? Will start-up healthcare companies financed by crowd-funding eventually have to fulfill strict reporting and transparency requirements?
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akampion Meets…Dr. Roman Rittweger, Founder and CEO of Roman Rittweger Advisors in Healthcare and Organizer of the IIHC Conference
akampion: You are organizing a new conference called Innovations and Investments in Healthcare (IIHC). What is the idea behind this new event?
R.R.: I had been organizing an exclusive, invite-only German event for the past five years in Munich, but I felt it was time to open the format for new ideas and new people and also attract a broader, international audience. The past conferences have been very successful because we were not relying on the typical company presentations, but instead hosted interactive panels consisting of four experts and one senior partner of Roman Rittweger Advisors in Healthcare. No boring slides! The new event takes the concept even further and is, among others, inspired by the TED conferences.
akampion: So what exactly is the goal of the IIHC?
R.R.: Our goal is to present exciting international developments to healthcare players in Germany. We want to confront German opinion leaders with the latest business ideas from the US, Asia etc. As an example, take the mobile health businesses that arrived in the US and large parts of Asia already, but not here. We are also taking a look at how other countries organize and re-organize their healthcare systems, for example emerging countries. What is their cost-benefit assessment of proven and novel products?
akampion: Can you tell us more about the program?
R.R.: The program is a good mix of interactive panels, three-slide presentations in front of an expert jury, and so-called “speed-dating sessions”, which gives selected attendees the opportunity to tell others about his business. And the keynote is extremely important, too – this year, we got Brian David Johnson, Futurist and Director, Future Casting and Experience Research at Intel Labs, U.S. We even have panelists from Abu Dhabi and Kazakhstan, where the healthcare systems are currently being completely re-invented. Moreover, a trauma surgeon will introduce telemedicine approaches to improve the treatment of traffic accident victims, we will talk about the “quantified self”-movement and how health and gene data can help to improve quality of life and the healthcare system. We will also discuss what drives investments in healthcare, what regulators require these days from innovations and what pharma and medtech companies can learn from a venture capital fund.
akampion: Who is your target audience?
R.R.: We are primarily targeting German decision makers, but will increase the number of international attendees over time, e.g. from Scandinavia or Eastern Europe. It is important to us that we attract representatives from both start-ups and emerging markets, as well as established companies and countries. Regulators and payors are key target groups, too.
akampion: Sounds very exciting! Last but not least – why did you choose a venue in Berlin?
R.R.: We are fully aware that the informal part of a conference is extremely important, especially for networking and attracting a broader international crowd. Therefore, we have decided to host the conference in Berlin. We will also have evening receptions and offer our attendees the opportunity to explore Berlin´s fascinating nightlife.
More information about the IIHC can be found at www.iihc.eu
Company News: bubbles & beyond presents product update and outlook at nanotech 2012
bubbles & beyond, a technology company focusing on customized intelligent fluids®, today announced that the company will present its current product portfolio and business strategy for 2012 at the upcoming nanotech 2012 conference in Tokyo, Japan (Feb. 15-17).
Intelligent fluids® are customized phase fluids, which are primarily designed for cleaning, separating and protecting surfaces. They significantly outperform competitive products in terms of efficiency and eco-friendliness. The technology platform is suitable for functional cosmetics, healthcare and industrial cleaning applications (construction, microelectronics, industrial solutions, print rolls, etc.). Products and processes based on intelligent fluids® are free from risky or dangerous substances and offer completely new application areas, significantly enhanced product characteristics and considerable process optimization in industrial settings.
In 2011, bubbles & beyond has reached major milestones, including the launch of its enpurex® cleansing product line for the printing industry, an important global distribution agreement with Rolf Meyer GmbH for the enpurex® line, and a development collaboration with JNC-CHISSO to create advanced cleansing solutions for the microelectronics sector. In addition, bubbles & beyond has established an advisory board of seasoned industry experts.