Pioneering innovation within healthcare

The Lundbeck Foundation invests in people, businesses and science at the frontiers of their fields, with the aspiration of pushing the boundaries of the current level of insights and knowledge, and identifying the health solutions of tomorrow.

The contribution to healthcare innovation, through both its long-term ownerships and investment in early-stage biotech, is a key component of the Foundation’s impact on society, with a clear link to SDG 9 and sub-target 9.5.

INNOVATION AS A CORNERSTONE OF THE ENGAGED OWNERSHIP MODEL As the engaged and long-term owner of three healthcare companies, the focus on healthcare innovation, and R&D is a core part of the Foundation’s ownership model, guiding the subsidiaries towards continuous innovation, and research into new medicines, treatments and healthcare solutions.

For the two pharmaceutical companies in the portfolio –Lundbeck and ALK - this is directly evident from the high R&D spend. For Falck, delivering breakthroughs in the healthcare service market has been defined as a key commitment in its 2025 strategy, launched in 2021.

Total R&D spend 2021 (DKKm) R&D spend as % of revenue 2021

This focus is also reflected in the Foundation’s new strategy, which has initiated the external screening of the market in pursuit of new ownership targets in healthcare, with the goal of expanding the Foundation’s ownership portfolio from three, to between five and eight companies in 2030.

RISK-WILLING CAPITAL FOR NEW BIOTECH The journey from scientific discovery to healthcare innovation and new treatments is long and challenging, and requires considerable risk-willing capital. In its role as a venture capital and seed investor, the Foundation drives healthcare innovation focusing on the biotech industry and on the development of new innovative medicines and treatments in areas of unmet patient need.

The Foundation’s international venture capital organisation, Lundbeckfonden Ventures, includes a portfolio of 14 companies, of which, several are focused on specialty pharma segments, which is often overlooked by big pharmaceutical companies. In 2021, the Foundation supported and participated in raising follow-on financing for several of its portfolio companies. In total, more than DKK 2bn was raised to support the further development of new treatments.

by Lundbeckfonden Ventures and Lundbeckfonden Emerge portfolio companies in follow-on financing to advance new drug development

The Lundbeck Foundation’s early investment unit based on Danish research, Lundbeckfonden Emerge, also participated in major financing rounds. Portfolio company IO Biotech raised approximately DKK 1.7bn in total from a Series B round (EUR 127m) and an IPO on Nasdaq (USD 115m). The proceeds will fund clinical trials for its early- and late-stage immunooncology programmes.

In addition to ensuring the financial needs of the portfolio, both Ventures and Emerge portfolio companies saw significant progress in R&D, taking new steps to bringing their discoveries closer to patients. This included the filing of a new drug (Spero Therapeutics), and the initiation of new clinical trials (VarmX and NMD Pharma).

From 2022, the Foundation has decided to merge Ventures and Emerge with the ambition to invest even more in Danishbased biotech, and to contribute to strengthening Denmark’s life science ecosystem as a whole.

BRIDGING THE GAP FROM SCIENCE TO BUSINESS In 2021, the Foundation decided to institute a new grants category: Frontier grants. This targets scientific research talents with research ideas that have commercial potential, but who might need support to mature their ideas to a stage where they can become relevant for commercial investors. The grant serves a dual purpose of developing the concrete research idea while also mentoring research talents to increase their ability to navigate in a commercial space, both now, and in potential future endeavours.