How Sovereign Wealth Funds Invest in Healthcare and Life Sciences

At a glance

• 62 deals by 43 sovereign funds in our tables.
• 18 carry an amount we can show in USD; 5 are USD 1 billion or more.
• Most active fund: Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust with 8 deals.
• Main structure: direct investment.

Key findings

1. Our profile tables list 62 healthcare and life sciences deals across 43 funds, 5% of all deals we track.
2. Most active: TSET (8), Bpifrance (4), WE (3).
3. Most common structure: direct investment (32 deals, 52%). Co-investments and joint ventures: 13. Fund commitments: 4.
4. Biggest amount in our tables: USD 18.8B, Lunate in Opella (Sanofi consumer health) (year n/a).
5. By fund home region: Europe 17, Asia 14, North America 12.
6. 61 operating funds name healthcare and life sciences as a focus sector on their profiles.
7. 27 of these deals are dated 2024 or later.
8. Top stages: buyout (11), growth (11), venture (9).

Most active funds

Biggest deals in our tables

Structures and stages

Regional patterns

Most common target countries: United States (15), France (4), United Kingdom (3), India (3), Belgium (3), Bahrain (2).

Partners named most often: Stephenson Cancer Center (2), CVC (1), GBL (1), PureHealth (1), Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (1), BC Partners (1).

Mini case studies

Mubadala Bio: building a national champion (Mubadala)

• Launched Mubadala Bio as a UAE life sciences company with 10 facilities worldwide.
• When: 2025
• Why: Building national champions in future industries is a core part of the mandate, alongside returns.
• Src: S3

First strategic investment (KIC)

• USD 150M into a global biotech R&D platform with CBC Group.
• When: March 2026 / Size: USD 150M
• Why: The CEO said it opens paths for Korean companies into global markets.
• Src: S14

Opella: co-investing in a large carve-out (Lunate)

• Backed CD&R's buyout of Sanofi's over-the-counter consumer health business.
• When: Disclosed November 2025 / Size: EUR 16B total deal value
• Why: Shows the co-investment model: large tickets beside a lead buyout firm.
• Src: S1

What this means for founders, managers and family offices

• Know the stage. Buyout is the most common stage here (11 deals), then growth (11). Seed deals: 2.
• For domestic projects, show how the deal adds local capacity. For global deals, show scale and an exit path.
• Check whether the fund invests in healthcare directly or through life sciences funds.
• Fund commitments are 6% of deals here. Most money goes direct, so managers should lead with co-investment rights.
• Family offices: 13 co-investments and joint ventures in our tables. Sitting beside a sovereign fund is more realistic than raising from one; start with the funds listed above.

Data notes: Counts come from the investment, case study and size tables in our fund profiles. They cover the deals each profile lists, not every deal a fund has done, so read them as a guide, not a full census. USD figures marked approx are either stated in USD in the profile or converted at the exchange rate implied by a fund profile headline in the same currency. Amounts are as the profile states them, so some are the full deal size and some are the fund's own ticket. Sector is the tag on each deal in our tables.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from the fund profiles linked in the tables. Source ids such as S3 refer to the numbered sources on each fund's own profile page, where the original document is listed with its date.