J.P. Morgan Hauls in $500M for Next Obesity Drug Leader

J.P. Morgan Private Capital, the venture capital and growth equity investment arm within J.P. Morgan Asset Management, closed its first Life Sciences Private Capital offering, 270 Life Sciences Private Capital Fund I, at over $500 million.

Stephen Squinto, CIO and managing partner of JPM Life Sciences Private Capital, said the raise took just over a year, almost two-times faster than its peers across the last decade, citing data from Preqin.

The fund received support from institutional allocators, strategic corporate partners, family offices and high net worth individuals across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, as well as JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Led by Squinto and managing partner Gaurav Gupta, the fund invests in private biotechnology companies, including the hot weight-loss sector, across stage, modality, therapeutic area, and geography.

The vehicle’s early company formation activities and portfolio investments span cardiometabolic disease, oncology, immunology, and genetic medicines.

With the introduction of GLP-1, as the newest class of weight-loss drugs are known, the sector is “wide open,” Squinto told Bloomberg. “This has the opportunity to be a pivotal moment in the pharmaceutical industry.”

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly currently control the market, but that’s not likely to remain the case. “It’s very unlikely that the future of obesity treatment will be dominated by a stable duopoly,” added Gupta.

The firm closed its tech and consumer-focused JP Morgan Growth Equity Partners fund at $1 billion last year.