Finance Watch: LSP Dementia Fund Closes With €260m For Neurodegenerative Diseases

Alzheimer’s disease is top of mind due to the millions of people in need of effective treatments and the rapid rise in the AD population globally – and because the first disease-modifying therapy has been approved in the US to slow the progression of the disease. It comes as no surprise then, with additional drug developers racing to bring similar or additive therapies to market after the US Food and Drug Administration approval of Eisai Co., Ltd./Biogen, Inc.’s Leqembi (lecanemab), that a new venture capital fund focused on start-ups tackling neurodegenerative diseases closed with more than double the money it initially set out to raise. (Also see "Eisai/Biogen’s Leqembi Will Launch Below Aduhelm At $26,500 Per Year" - Scrip, 6 January, 2023.)

EQT Life Sciences in Stockholm said on 29 March that it held the final close of its inaugural LSP Dementia Fund, raising €260m ($282.3m), far surpassing the target fund size of $100m. The fund will invest in companies that are developing drugs and medical technologies across the spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases