Medicxi Ventures, Formerly Index Ventures Life Sciences, Launches as an Independent Venture Capital Firm and Announces Closing of a €210M Fund including GSK and Johnson & Johnson Innovation.
Medicxi Ventures is based in London, Geneva and Jersey and has been investing in the Life Sciences field for over 20 years.
It comprises all of the legacy portfolio companies, funds and the life sciences team of Index Ventures, and a new €210 million fund (MV1) that will focus on early-stage investments in life sciences.
The Company’s mission is to invest and collaborate predominantly in Europe along the full healthcare continuum (Biotech and Academia), with a focus on drug discovery and development.
MV1 will focus on early-stage life sciences investments in Europe in a similar approach to that pioneered by its partners at Index.
By investing in MV1, GSK and Johnson & Johnson Innovation (JJDC) have renewed and expanded their commitment to the asset-centric approach, following the prior investment in Index Life 6 (IL-6) alongside other financial investors.
As in IL-6, these two Big pharmas have not received any specific rights to the portfolio companies.
Other companies which Medicxi has backed include Genmab (UK), PanGenetics in the Netherlands (sold to AbbVie), Molecular Partners (Switzerland), XO1 (sold to Janssen) Egalet (R&D in Denmark) and Minerva Neurosciences (US) to name a few.
Generally, following the announcement of the Apollo Fund Launch last week in the UK, and Abingworth who raised around $105M (€96M), the UK Life Sciences sector ‘is really looking good’.