While vaccine production was the money-maker for Biotechnology investors in 2020, tomorrow’s focus is being placed on Long Covid, its causes and potential treatments and billionaires are already leading the way.
In November 2021, Agreus broke the news that behind the world’s most successful coronavirus vaccination sat two brothers in a single Family Office in Munich.
Behind the brilliant scientists at German Immunotherapy Company BioNTech, who partnered with multinational pharmaceutical company Pfizer to create the vaccine, sat Andreas and Thomas Strüngmann and their Single Family Office; Athos Service GmbH.
The Strüngmann brothers who have a long-standing history in pharmaceuticals quickly became one of few Single Family Offices globally to have a single holding in their portfolio valued at over $12BN when BioNTech was listed on Nasdaq with a valuation of $25.3BN in November 2021. It wasn’t long before Moderna caught up.
Dr Noubar Afeyan is an American-Canadian entrepreneur, inventor and philanthropist who is best known within the Family Office community for co-founding humanitarian projects such as the Aurora Prize but what many might not know or think about in this context, is that he is also the co-founder and Chairman of biotechnology company Moderna who as many will know, is the creator of the second of three globally approved coronavirus vaccinations.
Moderna is now a household name with a market cap of $59.64 Billion as of July 2022. Afeyan is one of five billionaires associated with it and just one of several successes achieved through Flagship, his venture capital firm which boasts $17BN in AUM.
Since the launch of both vaccinations, Agreus has been exploring the pivotal role that Family Offices can play in early-stage science ventures. With 53% of Family Offices diversifying their investment portfolios as a direct result of COVID-19, it was never going to be long before we found a Family Office behind another ground-breaking discovery and it seems this time, the discovery in process involves Long Covid.
Billionaires are now backing the Long Covid Research Initiative (LCRI) which hopes to better understand Long Covid and how best to treat it.
$15M in funding was raised by the Crypto billionaire and Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin and another undisclosed amount committed by Biotechnology billionaire Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong through the Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation.
1 in 13 adults are suffering with symptoms of Long Covid with 100,000,000 around the world diagnosed and yet, there are no treatments or even answers. While some believe Long Covid is caused by blood clotting others say it is a shutting down of the immune system but ultimately much remains unknown.
The LCRI hopes to create answers and they are starting by questioning the causes of the virus, hoping it will provide a treatment. The US Census Bureau estimate that the annual cost of wages alone for those out of work surpasses $230BN and so there is more than a social impact to be made. The impact on the global economy could be catastrophic and so billionaire donors are lining up to get answers.
While we watch carefully to see if Family Offices join the cause to retrieve answers, we ask – will the latest billionaire-backed early-stage science venture be as profitable as vaccine production?