Back in 2019, GHO Cap­i­tal Part­ners claimed it closed the biggest-ever pri­vate eq­ui­ty fund fo­cused on Eu­ro­pean health­care, rais­ing a mam­moth $1 bil­lion-plus. Now the firm is clos­ing its next fund with dou­ble that amount.

GHO Cap­i­tal raised $2 bil­lion-plus un­der its third fund, GHO Cap­i­tal III, which is clos­ing less than four months af­ter en­ter­ing the mar­ket, the firm said on Tues­day. The fund, which drew sup­port from both new and old in­vestors, blew past GHO’s ini­tial tar­get of about $1.47 bil­lion (€1.25 bil­lion).

“We have seen un­prece­dent­ed deal ac­tiv­i­ty in our port­fo­lio and the sec­tor at large,” GHO part­ners said in a state­ment. “Our pipeline is more ac­tive now than ever be­fore.”

Since it was found­ed in 2014, GHO has pumped around $2.9 bil­lion (€2.5 bil­lion) in­to 14 plat­form com­pa­nies in the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal, medtech, pa­tient ser­vices and out­sourced ser­vices space. That in­cludes ac­tive phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal in­gre­di­ent (API) de­vel­op­er Ster­ling Phar­ma So­lu­tions and the oph­thalmic-fo­cused VI­S­U­far­ma. The firm says it pri­or­i­tizes com­pa­nies that “en­able bet­ter, faster and more ac­ces­si­ble health­care.”

Fol­low­ing sev­er­al strong years, bio­phar­ma ac­tiv­i­ty in­creased in Eu­rope amid the pan­dem­ic, a 2020 re­port by Bain & Com­pa­ny sug­gests. Last year saw a to­tal of 35 deals, up from 24 in 2019, ac­cord­ing to the re­port.

“The pan­dem­ic has served to high­light the strong, sec­u­lar sec­tor tail­winds that guide GHO’s in­vest­ment the­sis: an ever-grow­ing need for bet­ter, faster, more ac­ces­si­ble health­care,” the part­ners said.

In ad­di­tion to the fund, GHO has added 12 new team mem­bers in the last year and a half, and is now open­ing a US of­fice in Re­search Tri­an­gle Park, NC, which it hopes will ac­cel­er­ate growth op­por­tu­ni­ties for Eu­ro­pean busi­ness­es in­to North Amer­i­can mar­kets.

GHO is run by three man­ag­ing part­ners: Mike Mor­timer, a for­mer Quin­tiles ex­ec­u­tive; Alan MacK­ay, who served as a se­nior part­ner at 3i Group; and An­drea Pon­ti, who pre­vi­ous­ly was with JP Mor­gan.

So­cial im­age: Shut­ter­stock

GSK has landed a new first from UNICEF — the first-ever contract for malaria vaccines, worth up to $170 million for 18 million vaccine doses distributed over the next three years.

The vaccine, known as Mosquirix or RTS,S, won WHO’s backing last October after a controversial start, but UNICEF said these doses will potentially save thousands of lives every year.

“We hope this is just the beginning,” Etleva Kadilli, director of UNICEF’s supply division, said. “Continued innovation is needed to develop new and next-generation vaccines to increase available supply, and enable a healthier vaccine market. This is a giant step forward in our collective efforts to save children’s lives and reduce the burden of malaria as part of wider malaria prevention and control programmes.”

As the ink dries on CSL’s $11.7 billion Vifor buyout, the company posted a dip in profits, due in part to a drop in plasma donations amid the pandemic.

However, CEO Paul Perreault assured investors and analysts on the full-year call that the team has left “no stone unturned” when assessing options to grow plasma volumes. The chief executive also spelled out positive results for the company’s monoclonal antibody garadacimab in hereditary angioedema (HAE), though he isn’t revealing the exact numbers just yet.

Irish drugmaker Endo International is entering into bankruptcy as it faces the weight of serious litigation related to its involvement in the opioid epidemic in the US.

The company has filed Chapter 11 proceedings in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, with the company expected to file recognition proceedings in Canada, the UK and Australia. The company’s bankruptcy filing showed the company had assets and liabilities in the range of $1 billion to $10 billion.