Japan’s sovereign development bank is investing in UK life sciences for the first time with funding for 4Bio Capital, a UK venture fund that backs advanced treatments such as cell and gene therapies.
The Development Bank of Japan is investing in 4Bio, which funds companies in the UK and Europe, alongside the Japanese pharma group Kyowa Kirin, and US healthcare provider, Children’s Minnesota.
4Bio aims to raise $200mn to $300mn for its third fund — about twice as much as its last one — to invest in early stage private biotech companies, despite depressed share prices for listed biotechs. The S&P biotech index is trading about 50 per cent below its peak in February 2021.