Abingworth

Abingworth is a London-founded transatlantic life sciences investment firm established in 1973 by London stockbrokers Peter Dicks and Anthony Montagu, making it one of the longest-operating dedicated life sciences venture firms in the world. The firm focuses exclusively on biopharmaceuticals, drug delivery technologies, and life science instruments, backing companies from seed stage through clinical co-development. Abingworth has raised 15 dedicated life sciences funds, including Abingworth Bioventures 8 at $466 million, and deployed approximately $3 billion in equity across more than 190 portfolio companies since inception. In August 2022, The Carlyle Group completed its acquisition of Abingworth, integrating its life sciences venture franchise into Carlyle's broader global healthcare platform. Alongside the integration, Abingworth and Carlyle formed Launch Therapeutics, an operating company designed to accelerate late-stage clinical development by partnering with biopharmaceutical companies on funding and running pivotal clinical trials. Abingworth maintains offices in London, Menlo Park (California), and Boston, providing coverage of both European and US biotech hubs. The firm's track record spans more than 50 merger and acquisition events and more than 75 IPOs across its portfolio lifetime. Therapeutics-focused investments span seed and early-stage company formation, development-stage capital, and its proprietary clinical co-development model, a pioneering structure in which Abingworth co-funds and co-manages late-stage clinical programmes directly. Beyond its original portfolio investments in Clovis Oncology, Halo Diagnostics, Nightstar Therapeutics, and Sequenom, the firm's broader portfolio includes Personalis, Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, R1 Therapeutics, Addition Therapeutics, Cytospire Therapeutics, and Glycomine.