Novaquest closes $459 million private equity fund

NovaQuest Capital Management, L.L.C. is pleased to announce the final closing of NovaQuest Pharma Opportunities Fund III, L.P., a $459 million private equity fund focused on providing structured finance solutions to biopharmaceutical companies ("Fund III"). With Fund III, the NovaQuest management team seeks to continue its strategy of earning product-based returns from late-stage and commercial products, which are strategic to the biopharmaceutical companies with whom it enters into customized financing arrangements.

"We are extremely pleased to have a mix of high-quality, limited partners who have entrusted their capital to us, and who are supportive of our unusual, alternative offering that seeks to earn returns primarily from the important products of mid- and large-size biopharmaceutical companies," said Ron Wooten, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of NovaQuest. "The global biopharmaceutical industry faces many challenges as it seeks to bring new and beneficial medicines and therapies to patients. We believe these challenges and the demand to improve healthcare globally should provide many opportunities for NovaQuest to make investments that both help patients and give our limited partners the chance to earn attractive returns on their investments," added Wooten. The limited partners of Fund III include the strategic and corporate investors, who served as cornerstones to help establish the fund. Upon that base of capital, additional capital commitments were secured from a variety of institutional investors that included pension funds, family offices and a major university endowment.

The NovaQuest team began working together in the early 2000s at what is now Quintiles Transnational Holdings Inc., the world's largest pharmaceutical services firm. The team made its initial investments, while they worked in a dedicated investment group inside Quintiles. In late 2010, the team spun out of Quintiles to form an independent management company, NovaQuest Capital Management, L.L.C., and, concurrently, had the first close of Fund III. Fund III will, as a fully-independent investment vehicle, continue to execute the strategy followed by the team over the last decade.