Blackstone closes record $6.3bn life sciences fund
Nicholas Galakatos, global head of life sciences at Blackstone.
Private equity firm Blackstone has said that its latest life sciences fund – BXLS VI – has closed with a total of $6.3 billion in capital commitments, which it thinks makes it the largest ever private fund for the sector.
The latest iteration of the BXLS fund was oversubscribed and is 40% bigger than the fifth fund, which closed in 2020 with a value of $4.6 billion, and another sign of the improving sentiment among investors toward the life sciences and healthcare sectors.
First launched in 2018, Blackstone's BXLS programme has funded some large-scale deals in recent years, notably including a $2 billion alliance with Alnylam in 2020 to develop RNAi therapeutics, a $750 million collaboration with Moderna in 2024 to develop mRNA-based flu vaccines, and big investments in companies like Teva and Reata Pharma.
Last year, it sold cardiovascular drug developer Anthos Therapeutics to Novartis in a $3.1 billion deal, and invested $700 million in MSD's TROP2-targeting antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab tirumotecan for various forms of cancer, including breast, endometrial, and lung tumours, in return for a royalty stream. And last month, it pledged $400 million in co-funding support for Johnson & Johnson's oral menin inhibitor bleximenib, in development as a treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).
BXLS' focus is mainly on life sciences players with assets in the later stages of drug development, such as phase 3 testing, with a clear route to market and high commercial potential, an approach it describes as funding "products, not companies." It had around $15 billion in assets under management as of the end of 2025.
"Our partnerships with global leaders have produced 34 regulatory approvals of innovative medicines and devices," said Nicholas Galakatos, global head of life sciences at Blackstone.
"This track record highlights how we work successfully with industry trailblazers to help bring their most important products to patients around the world," he added.
Among the products brought to market thanks to its financial backing are Alnylam's Amvuttra (vutrisiran) for cardiomyopathy and polyneuropathy caused by the disorder ATTR amyloidosis, Novartis' twice-yearly cholesterol-lowering drug Leqvio (inclisiran), and AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson's market-leading BTK inhibitor Imbruvica (ibrutinib) for blood cancers.
Blackstone said the BXLS platform has an 86% regulatory approval rate for its phase 3 assets, which "has outperformed the industry's average and led to strong performance for the benefit of its investors."
"We are grateful to the BXLS VI investors for their strong support of our strategies and the firm's enduring conviction in the life sciences," said Galakatos.
