Peregrine Ventures invests in American cancer treatment company

While young Israeli life sciences companies are attracting interesting investments from abroad, a reverse flow has also developed in recent years, for Israeli venture capital funds’ investments in offshore life sciences companies, especially in Europe and the United States. Israeli funds developed on the basis of good investments in the Israeli market, in companies that were probably not known to foreign investors, and therefore represented good opportunities for them. But now they have grown and are interested in participating in larger investment rounds, and the number of suitable Israeli companies is not large. They have also developed a network of relationships over the years with foreign investors. Israeli money brings partners abroad into investments in Israel, and the latter returns the favor. Therefore, the number of investments by Israeli healthcare funds in foreign companies has increased. An example is the $10 million investment that Peregrine Ventures announced today through its Peregrine Growth Fund in cancer treatment developer Ribon Therapeutics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The round, totaling $65 million, was led by Deerfield Management and US Venture Partners. Existing investors AbbVie Ventures, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Euclidean Capital and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC Inc. also participated. and Novartis Venture Fund, Osage University Partners, Takeda Ventures, and The Column Group. Ribon Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing therapies that target novel families of enzymes that are activated under conditions of cellular stress that contribute to disease. The company is developing treatments that prevent substances that appear in such conditions from stressing, hoping to improve the patient’s condition. Peregrine Ventures has raised a total of $600 million in five funds to date. In the past two years, it has expanded its activity significantly, by raising $115 million for a venture capital fund and a $300 million growth fund focusing on late-stage companies about to go public, or targeted for mergers and acquisitions. Among the company’s most well-known companies are cancer treatment companies Nectin Therapeutics, Kahr Medical, Memic, Aleph Farms and Insightec. Eyal Lifshitz, Managing Partner of Peregrine Ventures, said today: “As part of our long-term strategy, we continue to invest in cancer treatment companies, and recently completed three investments in this pharmaceutical sector. In addition, we invest in companies in the cancer medical device space, as well as in Other pharmaceutical companies in the sector.According to WHO data for 2020, 10 million people died of cancer in the world last year, which is 2.5 times the number of deaths from Covid-19 that is turning the world..New technologies are key to reducing deaths from cancer. Therefore, we are looking for additional opportunities in this field, in Israel as well as abroad.” Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on July 15, 2021 © Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2021