BioAdvance had what it is calling a "record-breaking year" of investing in 2022, putting more than $4.7 million into eight new companies and several existing portfolio companies.
The addition of eight new companies is the Wayne-based venture investor's highest tally in 10 years.
Dr. Shahram Hejazi, BioAdvance's CEO and managing director, said the increased investment is a result of "revamped" investment strategy that has it backing very early-stage startups from a range of life sciences segments including digital health and cell therapy.
BioAdvance's year of record investments, while modest when compared to the eight-figure backing typically provided by larger venture capital firms, comes during a time when those larger firms have curtailed deals with more advanced life sciences firms because they have become more risk-averse during the downturn in the economy.
“We will continue to expand our impact by supporting promising early-stage technologies and entrepreneurs with both funding and expertise to help grow their businesses, and in turn impact human health," Hejazi said.
BioAdvance was established in 2002 as the operator of the Biotechnology Greenhouse of Southeastern Pennsylvania using $33.8 million in proceeds from the state's tobacco industry litigation settlement. Other biotechnology greenhouses were established in Pittsburgh and Hershey to help nurture and support early-stage life sciences companies across the state.
Since it made its first investments in 2003, BioAdvance has committed more than $55 million in funding to about 100 organizations developing more than 160 products in the diagnostics, therapeutic, medtech, research and digital health sectors. Its portfolio companies have leveraged those initial BioAdvance investments to attract $3.8 billion in subsequent capital, including proceeds from acquisitions. Eleven products from its portfolio companies have received Food and Drug Administration approval.
Of the eight new companies to receive BioAdvance funding in 2022, four are based in the Philadelphia region and four are in other parts of the country. The companies are:
- Eliksa Therapeutics, a Doylestown company aiming to be the major supplier of FDA-approved amniotic fluid and membrane products for treatment of a variety of inflammatory conditions;
- Phrase Health, a Philadelphia digital health company that provides tools to health systems to analyze and govern their clinical decision support;
- Senzo, a Newtown developer of a handheld diagnostic device for Covid and other infectious diseases;
- Vesteck, a West Chester medical device company focused on aortic repair;
- KaloCyte, a Baltimore company developing a red blood cell substitute for treatment of acute blood loss;
- Kayothera, a Seattle developer of cancer treatments aimed at a novel pathway that impacts cancer cell growth and metastasis;
- Concarlo Therapeutics, a Brooklyn, New York, developer of drugs that modulate an important pathway in cancer cell growth; and
- Sirpant Immunotherapeutics, a Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, company that develops cancer treatments using conditioned macrophages with enhanced immunotherapeutic activity.
BioAdvance also made several follow-on investments in existing portfolio companies, including ENB Therapeutics, RightAir, Ossianix and Venatorx Pharmaceuticals.
The amounts of the investments were not disclosed.
BioAdvance invests at two stages of a company’s lifecycle. It invests up to $200,000 in early-stage companies seeking to accomplish one or more critical milestones that will, potentially, enable them to attract subsequent, larger institutional investments. Its fund also makes larger venture investments in seed and Series A rounds. Those investments — often made as part of a syndicate of investors— are typically for up to $1.5 million initially, and up to $5 million in the lifetime of the companies.
