Henrijette Richter discusses Apollo deal with Børsen: "You have to play in that arena"

The leading Danish financial publication Børsen published an analytical piece on May 25 in the wake of Sofinnova Partners' deal with Apollo, featuring extensive quotes from Managing Partner Henrijette Richter of Sofinnova Partners.

The Børsen article by Tom Frovst points to two earlier deals — EQT's purchase of the Dutch company Life Sciences Partners, and Carlyle's purchase of Abingworth.

"Our thinking has been that you have to play in that arena," Richter said of the trend. "It's a process that has started and we want to see a lot more of it."

She pointed out that Apollo wanted more exposure to life science investing, " but when you look at how long it took us to build, they were convinced not to start building anything themselves." Sofinnova Partners has been in business for 50 years.

Richter said that she and the other partners "chose to do it a little differently than others who sold the whole fund; we've chosen to do a strategic collaboration instead. In return, we get access to their capital and the underlying investors."

She said that with the additional source of funding from Apollo, Sofinnova Partners could accelerate its plans and perhaps help Europe catch up with the biotech market in the U.S.

"Timing is really important here, because we are at the beginning of a period of stagnation," Richter added.