Evolvence India Life Sciences Fund (EILSF), a fund focused on investing in the life sciences space in India, has invested Rs 25 crore in Chennai-based pharmaceutical company, Anjan Drugs Pvt. Ltd. The company specialises in medicines used for the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) disorders. It is one of the largest US-FDA approved producers of Divalproex Sodium and various other salts of Valproic Acid.
The fund has assets worth $150 million under management and provides growth capital to Indian pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Last the year, the fund had invested $30 million in the Hyderabad based advanced drug delivery mechanism company, Gland Pharma.
EILSF has also invested about $5 million in Bangalore-based cancer centre network, Health Care Global.
EILSF is a fund sponsored by Evolvence Capital. The fund aims at investing in companies in the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), contract research and manufacturing services (CRAMS), disease management and CRO spaces.
In the current times, healthcare is one of the few sectors continuing to get significant amounts of investments from the private equity and venture capital community. About two months back, Indian Angel Network invested $500,000 in Karmic Life Sciences, Mumbai based oncology focused contract research organisation (CRO). Similarly, Rx HealthCare Magic, which runs a healthcare portal HealthcareMagic.com, raised Series A funding of $2.5 million from Accel India in February this year.
Despite the slowdown in the economy, there still is a continuous flow of M&A activities in the healthcare sector, largely owing to the investor belief that this is one of the less-recession impacted sectors. Earlier this year, diagnostic chain Metropolis acquired two pathlabs in northern India. Yash Birla Group acquired a majority stake in Kerala Vaidyashala, an ayurvedic therapy centre chain, through a joint venture, in January.
Recently, Sabre Capital too set up a company called Spring Healthcare Ltd through which it plans to make investments of around Rs 250 crore in the Indian healthcare space.
