MPM/Novartis Fund Deals with Radius

In mid-September, the MPM Capital/Novartis investment fund closed a $10 million investment in Radius Health -- getting an option on Radius's Phase II osteoporosis candidate and the first evidence that its strategy of melding business development with VC can work. And that's why the outcome will be important to watch. If the Radius deal is followed by others, Big Pharma will try to copy the model. If the deal is seen as preventing Radius from getting a profitable exit for its investors, serving Novartis' needs at their expense, corporate VC will go back to the drawing board.

In mid-September, the awkwardly named MPM Bio IV NVS Strategic Fund LP, a joint program between MPM Capital and Novartis AG ’s pharmaceutical business unit run by Thomas Ebeling, made its first move: a $10 million equity investment in Radius Health Inc. Separately, the pharma took an option on Radius’s Phase II osteoporosis candidate, BA058. [See Deal]

That’s important because the MPM/ Novartis fund is an option fund—a $100 million investment into a kind of side-pool of...

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