Blackstone, the world's largest alternative asset manager, said Saturday that it has completed fundraising for Blackstone Life Sciences Fund VI at $6.3 billion (approximately 9.6 trillion won).
The fund is the largest-ever private equity fund dedicated to the life sciences sector. The total represents a roughly 40% increase over Blackstone Life Sciences Fund V. The result is seen as a testament to investor confidence in Blackstone's expertise in the bio and healthcare sectors despite an uncertain market environment.
Blackstone launched Blackstone Life Sciences in 2018 as a dedicated platform for investing in companies and products across key areas of life sciences. The platform had approximately $15 billion in assets under management as of the end of last year. The firm said the platform supports the development and commercialization of innovative pharmaceuticals and medical technologies, drawing on deep expertise, a global network, and large-scale capital. Since its inception, the platform has backed the development of more than 215 medicines.
In particular, Blackstone Life Sciences deployed $2 billion in new investments over the past 12 months. These include:
△ Funding research and development related to sacituzumab tirumotecan (sac-TMT) with Merck
△ Co-investing in an acute myeloid leukemia treatment
△ A $400 million strategic investment with Teva for the development of duvakitug
△ A $2 billion strategic financing collaboration with Alnylam to accelerate RNAi therapeutics development
△ Supporting Anthos Therapeutics' acquisition by Novartis
"Through partnerships with leading global companies, we have successfully supported a total of 34 drug and medical device approvals," said Nicholas Galakatos, Global Head of Blackstone Life Sciences. "These results demonstrate our ability to effectively deliver key products that patients need, built on collaboration with our partner companies."