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▎药明康德内容团队编辑今日，Petrichor旗下的Scion Life Sciences公司宣布完成首支基金的募资，募资额超出预期，达到3.1亿美元。Scion Life Sciences公司致力于创建和培养专注于发现、开发和商业化革命性或潜在治愈性创新疗法的卓越生物技术公司。Scion由行业资深人士Samuel W. Hall博士和Aaron M. Kantoff先生，以及Petrichor的创始人和管理合伙人Tadd S. Wessel先生共同创立和领导。Scion的使命是为严重和威胁生命的疾病提供治愈性、或变革临床管理的药物。这一目标指导着公司的全部战略和运作方式。Scion将基于转化创新，构建具有正确构架的生物技术公司，将其转化为具有重要临床意义的药物。Scion将为其投资的公司提供长期资本和运营资源，以实现它们发现和开发的疗法的临床潜力。Scion可以进行最少数千美元的初期投资以支持早期孵化项目，并有能力在每个投资公司的生命周期中累计投入6000万美元以上的资金，从种子轮之前阶段一直支持有前景的公司直到IPO及以后。Scion公司采用严谨的投资方法，专注于三个核心支柱，以降低风险并最大化产生革命性疗法的可能性：投资于成熟的治疗模式和在现阶段或近期内能够产生重大医疗进步的赋能技术。瞄准那些对底层科学有深入理解、能够进行有力干预的治疗领域、疾病和药物靶点。关注能够由独立的生物技术公司有效解决的临床问题。Scion拥有一个经验丰富的科学、医学、金融、技术和运营专业人员团队。该公司已开始使用其首个基金进行投资，已有四个有前景的公司成立项目正在进行中。为了增强其能力，Scion还推出了Scion Innovations，这是一个致力于研发和运营支持的内部部门。该举措使Scion能够做出明智、客观的决策，确保只有最有潜力的项目才能发展成为投资组合中的完整公司。大家都在看药明康德为全球生物医药行业提供一体化、端到端的新药研发和生产服务，服务范围涵盖化学药研发和生产、生物学研究、临床前测试和临床试验研发、细胞及基因疗法研发、测试和生产等领域。如您有相关业务需求，欢迎点击下方图片填写具体信息。▲如您有任何业务需求，请长按扫描上方二维码，或点击文末“阅读原文/Read more”，即可访问业务对接平台，填写业务需求信息▲欲了解更多前沿技术在生物医药产业中的应用，请长按扫描上方二维码，即可访问“药明直播间”，观看相关话题的直播讨论与精彩回放参考资料：[1] Scion Life Sciences Launches with Oversubscribed $310 Million Fund to Create and Build Exceptional Biotech Companies. Retrieved February 7, 2024, from https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/scion-life-sciences-launches-with-oversubscribed-310-million-fund-to-create-and-build-exceptional-biotech-companies-302055568.html免责声明：药明康德内容团队专注介绍全球生物医药健康研究进展。本文仅作信息交流之目的，文中观点不代表药明康德立场，亦不代表药明康德支持或反对文中观点。本文也不是治疗方案推荐。如需获得治疗方案指导，请前往正规医院就诊。版权说明：本文来自药明康德内容团队，欢迎个人转发至朋友圈，谢绝媒体或机构未经授权以任何形式转载至其他平台。转载授权请在「药明康德」微信公众号回复“转载”，获取转载须知。分享，点赞，在看，聚焦全球生物医药健康创新

Scion co-founders Sam Hall, Ph.D., and Aaron Kantoff were colleagues for six years at Apple Tree Partners until 2019. Two former Apple Tree investors have set off on their own path, blossoming a new biotech-focused incubator with an inaugural fund of $310 million.  Scion Life Sciences officially hit the stage Tuesday morning, led by Sam Hall, Ph.D., and Aaron Kantoff, who overlapped at VC firm Apple Tree Partners for six years until 2019. Kantoff, co-founder of Bristol Myers Squibb-bought RayzeBio, also spent some time as a venture partner at European investment firm Medicxi before starting Scion.  Scion’s core mission is not too different from many other biotech investors, with an emphasis on directing capital to scientists and research that have a high probability of success and could result in paradigm-shifting medicines. To accomplish that, Scion and its founders are laying out a concise road map that starts with incubating early science focused on biologics and large-molecule development.  The firm’s in-house R&D capabilities, dubbed Scion Innovations, will be used as a proving ground for scientists and entrepreneurs looking to establish their first programs. Scion said in its announcement that “only programs with exceptional potential mature into full-scale portfolio company investments.”  “We really want to be ruthless early in the incubation of the projects and companies we build,” Hall told Fierce Biotech in an interview alongside Kantoff. “We want to address head-on all of the key existential risks that we see that … confront the project and company build,” Hall added.  The reason the fund is prioritizing large-molecule and biologics development is that this space spans some of the most mature science, according to the founders. Scion has “four promising company formation efforts underway,” as noted in a press release, which Kantoff elaborated span bispecific antibodies, conjugates, and gene and cell therapy. None of the potential companies are working on cancer treatments. Kantoff expects at least one of the four companies currently being incubated to launch before the end of the year, with another possibly on the cards as well. The effort to grow those biotechs so far has happened in parallel with fundraising efforts, which went as well as Kantoff and Hall could have imagined. They set out to raise $250 million with a hard cap of $300 million, but, thanks to “the tremendous amount of interest and momentum,” according to Kantoff, the investor syndicate agreed to raise the cap to $310 million.  The firm is affiliated with healthcare private equity company Petrichor, although Scion’s founders insist the two will operate separately. Hall described the two entities as “separate businesses with partners in common,” with a relationship principally focused on shares administrative functions. Tadd Wessel, Petrichor’s managing director, is a co-founder and managing director of Scion.  “I and the entire Petrichor team are delighted to partner with them in building Scion,” Wessel said in Scion's release.  Editor's note: This story was updated to correct that Petrichor and Scion do not have a tax partnership. The author misheard "Tadd's partnership" in the interview. 

Scion Life Sciences on Tuesday launched with the closing of its first investment fund, bringing in $310 million to spend on creating and building biotech companies working on clinically transformational or curative new medicines.The firm will be headed by Aaron Kantoff and Sam Hall, both former Apple Tree investors, along with Tadd Wessel, founder and managing partner of healthcare private equity company Petrichor, of which Scion is an affiliate. Kantoff previously co-founded RayzeBio, which was bought by Bristol Myers Squibb, while Hall has helped start a number of biotechs that have since been acquired, including Chinook Therapeutics and Syntimmune.Wessel, who was previously a partner at OrbiMed Advisors, said Kantoff and Hall “have established themselves as exceptional investors and company builders and the outlier success of the companies they have previously built together provides impressive validation of their unique approach.”Scion noted that its investments will be guided by three pillars, including focusing on therapeutic modalities and enabling technologies that are “sufficiently mature” to make an impact in the near term. The firm will also seek to put its money into areas where “deep understanding” of the underlying science makes powerful intervention possible."We build companies with the primary objective of creating important new medicines, not exits," Kantoff said, with Scion adding that its structure allows it to support “its most promising portfolio companies through to maturity as late- or commercial-stage biopharmaceutical enterprises.” Kantoff noted that Scion’s “proactive and data-driven” approach will enable it to build “sustainably operating biotechnology companies that are capable of ascending to valuations in the tens of billions.”Scion said that four company formation efforts are already under way. The firm is well-capitalised to allot at least $60 million to support each portfolio company through to an IPO and beyond.Scientific supportTo support these new companies, the life sciences venture capital firm also created Scion Innovations, which will serve as an incubation hub and provide in-house R&D capabilities and operational resources. In particular, Innovations is intended to create and evaluate biologics, boasting protein engineering capabilities as well as the tools to design, construct, and optimise monoclonal and multi-specific antibodies. The scientific hub also has a platform to characterise in vitro and in vivo the biochemical properties and functions of therapeutic candidates.