The Long Game In Life Sciences: $181B Fund Baillie Gifford Invests Big In Private Companies

Traditional life sciences investors have made lots and lots of money from recent multibillion-dollar exits like Receptos, Alios and Acerta. But lately I’ve noticed a different life sciences investing strategy, one closer to the way social/mobile/software investors invest. By paying higher entry prices for later mega-rounds in ambitious life sciences companies, including both therapeutics and non-therapeutics companies, these deep-pocketed investors hope to reproduce their earlier successes investing in the likes of Amazon and Tesla. Their capital, which comes without the usual board seats and tight monitoring, is deeply welcome, because it allows these companies (similar to consumer companies like Airbnb and Uber) to stay under the radar much longer than if they would have to file for an initial public offering (IPO).