Abingworth LLP (formerly ''Abingworth Management Ltd.'') is a transatlantic bioscience investment firm founded in 1973 by a pair of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

stockbrokers,

Peter Dicks Peter F. Dicks (born 1942) is a London-based investment manager and venture capitalist. He was the co-founder of Abingworth (company), Abingworth PLC, one of the earlier venture capital funds in Europe. He is also the former chairman of Sporting ...

and Hon. Anthony Montagu. Abingworth had initially sought to extend its investments into the biotechnology industry in the late 1980s, and has subsequently been investing in life science and healthcare services companies since at least 2001, and had expanded to include information technology firm investments by 2016. In August 2022, Abingworth was acquired by

The Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group Inc. is an American multinational company with operations in private equity, alternative asset management and financial services. As of 2023, the company had $426 billion of assets under management. Carlyle specializes in ...

Offices

In addition to its base in London, the company had a second office in

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

as of 2001. By 2016, the Palo Alto office had been replaced by an office in

Menlo Park Menlo Park may refer to: Places *Menlo Park, New Jersey, a section of Edison, New Jersey, location of Thomas Edison's laboratories **Menlo Park Mall, a shopping mall in Edison **Menlo Park Terrace, New Jersey, a section of nearby Woodbridge Townsh ...

, and an additional offices had been established in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

Investments

The company's investment strategy involves the establishment of ''funds'' with particular investment targets in mind. For instance, the "Bioventures VI" fund was "closed" in March 2014, having accrued $375 million, reportedly exceeding the "target" for the fund. A key element in the firm's investment strategy is the ''exit,'' which signifies the acquisition of or initial public offering by a company in which the firm has invested. Prior to 1987, Abingworth had made investments, considered by 2016 to have been successful, in

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

and

Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...

. The firm created its biotech investment arm in 1987. Among the first investments was in Immunology Ltd, which was later renamed to Cantab Pharmaceuticals. In 2000, the company joined several others in providing funding for Oxagen. In the early 2000s, the firm invested in and saw forward to

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

a number of firms, including Dicerna Pharmaceuticals and

Clovis Oncology Clovis Oncology is an American pharmaceutical company which mainly markets products for treatment in oncology. Clovis was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. The company is a publicly traded company on NASDAQ under the sy ...

. The firm has also provided funding to support the acquisition of

Algeta Algeta ASAALGETA:NO was founded in 1997 by Roy H. Larsen and Øyvind S. Bruland in Oslo, Norway as a private biotechnology and pharmaceutical company. The company’s research and development focus lies in the field of alpha-particle emitting ra ...

Bayer Bayer AG (English: , commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies and biomedical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer' ...

and Avila Therapeutics by

Celgene Celgene Corporation, headquartered in Summit, New Jersey, was a pharmaceutical company that produced cancer and immunology drugs. Its primary products were Revlimid (lenalidomide), which is used in the treatment of multiple myeloma (63% of 2018 r ...

. In the Algeta case, this was the very first of the firm's venture investments in public equities, dating to February 2009. In 2013, the firm realised an exit from investment in Syntaxin Ltd when it was acquired by

Ipsen Ipsen is a French biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Paris, France, with a focus on drug development and commercialization in three therapeutic areas: oncology, rare diseases and neuroscience. Ipsen is one of the world's top 15 biopha ...

SA. In 2013, the firm invested in Effector Therapeutics. It also, in January 2013, set up Avillion Group Partners, a clinical phase III co-development accelerator, with Massachusetts-based Clarus Ventures. Following from this, Avillion partnered with

Pfizer Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered at The Spiral (New York City), The Spiral in Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 184 ...

on a label expansion effort for

Bosulif Bosutinib, sold under the brand name Bosulif, is a small molecule BCR-ABL and src tyrosine kinase inhibitor used for the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia. Originally synthesized by Wyeth, it is being developed by Pfizer. Mechanism ...

. In 2014, the firm invested in two ophthalmic companies, Avedro and Gensight Biologics.

Corporate details

, Abingworth had less than 10 employees. and the company managed $300 million across several funds and had provided capital to sixty life science companies.. By 2014, the managed value of one of the firm's ten funds was $375 million. , there were two

managing partner A partner in a law firm, accounting firm, consulting firm, or financial firm is a highly ranked position, traditionally indicating co-ownership of a partnership in which the partners were entitled to a share of the profits as " equity partners" ...

s, Timothy J. Haines and Kurt von Emster. and the firm had grown to over 20 employees. "Special partner" David Leathers joined the firm in 1987, having left

Rothschild Rothschild () is a name derived from the German ''zum rothen Schild'' (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "to the red shield", in reference to the houses where these family members lived or had lived. At the time, houses were designated by signs ...

. James Abell has held the post of chief financial officer since at least 2001. The company also has a board of directors, which consisted of two members in 2016, Stephen Bunting and Theodore Clark. Bunting had been a managing partner from 2002 to at least 2014, having joined Abingworth in 1987 after leaving Rothschild with Leathers. By 2014, Bunting had been involved in the establishment each of the ten (at that time) of the company's life science investment funds.

Acquisition

In August 2022, Abingworth was acquired by

. At the time of the acquisition, Abingworth had approximately $2 billion in assets under management.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.abingworth.com/ Companies based in the City of Westminster British companies established in 1973 Venture capital firms of the United Kingdom 1973 establishments in England 2022 mergers and acquisitions The Carlyle Group companies