Sanifit
Country: Spain
Region: Islas Baleares
Investors: Caixa Capital Risc, Gilde Healthcare, Ysios, Forbion, Andera
When Caixa Capital Risc invested in bioscience company Sanifit in 2007, the company was at launch stage. With CCR’s backing over the last seven years, the Spanish start-up has created potential treatments for calcification disorders affecting one million end-stage kidney disease sufferers in Europe, the US and Japan. This work is critical as the build-up of calcium in the body can cause heart attacks, cardio-vascular disease, and rare conditions, such as calciphylaxis, which dramatically reduce sufferers’ life expectancy.
With CCR’s ongoing funding, Sanifit has taken its leading drug (SNF 472) through early testing and into phase II clinical trials. The group is also developing a treatment for osteoporosis which affects some 100 million people worldwide.
Having twice broke the Spanish biotech financing record in recent years, Sanifit has accepted in 2021 a 205 million euro ($231 million) buyout bid from Vifor Pharma becoming the largest exit of a biotech company in Spain.
1m
million kidney disease sufferers could be helped
100m
million osteoporosis sufferers could benefit
Together with CCR we have brought our science and drug candidates from the academia to clinical trials and have become a leading company in calcification disorders.
What did the business need?
Investment in R&D to develop academic research into commercially-viable drugs
Strategic guidance on product definition and market opportunities
Access to leading bioscience and healthcare advisers
Expanded senior management team
How did private equity backing create lasting value?
Created a scientific advisory board staffed with leading professionals in the field
Installed a management team with experience of drug development in top pharma groups
Identified market opportunity and focused on treatments for cardiovascular effects of calcification
Brought access to top-tier firms and partners
Helped expand investor network with national and pan-European government agencies
What outcomes did private equity investment achieve?
Established proof of concept
Took leading drug to phase II clinical trials
Helped create a pipeline of new products
Attracted an international management team
Licensed first product to a leading over the counter company
Investors
