René R. Kuijten: EQT Life Sciences: 2025 Highlights and 2026 Outlook

The past year marked a period of strong momentum and sustained impact for EQT Life Sciences. We continued to build on a life sciences environment shaped by rising global healthcare demand, rapid scientific innovation across pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and diagnostics, and an increasing need for pharmaceutical and medical technology companies to offset revenue losses from patent expirations. Europe remains a particularly attractive investment region, offering world-class science and innovation alongside compelling valuations and a less crowded capital markets landscape.

With more than 30 years of experience translating cutting-edge science into meaningful healthcare solutions, EQT Life Sciences has supported companies that have developed over 100 new medicines and medical technologies, benefiting millions of patients while delivering strong financial returns. Strong execution across our existing portfolio, combined with new investments throughout the year and supported by an improving market backdrop, reinforces our long-term conviction and our ability to create value across market cycles.

Throughout 2025, EQT Life Sciences continued to execute its strategy across biotechnology and medical technology, supporting companies that address significant unmet medical needs through highly differentiated approaches.

New Investments

We have made five new investments during the year:

• Mosanna Therapeutics raised $80m in a Series A financing led by EQT Life Sciences to advance its nasal spray for obstructive sleep apnoea into Phase 2 clinical development.
• Cyted Health secured $44m in a Series B financing led by EQT Life Sciences to support U.S. expansion of its simple, non-invasive test, enabling earlier identification of people at risk for oesophageal cancer, improving patient outcomes while reducing reliance on complex procedures.
• Neuros Medical completed a $56m Series D financing led by EQT Life Sciences to scale commercialization in the U.S. of a breakthrough, non-opioid nerve-stimulation device that helps people living with chronic amputation pain find lasting relief and improve quality of life.
• Electra Therapeutics secured $183m in a Series C financing co-led by EQT Life Sciences to fund registrational Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical studies of its lead program and to advance its pipeline across immunology and inflammation.
• BioArctic is widely known for having invented the first fully approved disease-modifying therapy for Alzheimer’s disease. EQT Life Sciences acquired SEK 108m of shares in a secondary offering.

Continued Progress Across the Portfolio

The year was also defined by significant portfolio transactions and strategic outcomes:

• Merus was acquired for ~ $8bn following strong clinical data, further advancing its bispecific antibody platform within Genmab.
• ImCheck Therapeutics entered into an acquisition agreement valued at up to €1bn, enabling the continued development of its novel immunotherapy programs in partnership with Ipsen.
• VarmX secured a strategic option agreement with CSL in a deal value that could exceed $2bn, supporting the advancement of its therapeutic approach to coagulation reversal.

Significant fundraises across the portfolio further underscored the strength and breadth of EQT Life Sciences' investment strategy:

• Evommune completed a successful NYSE debut, marking the first major immunology IPO of 2025 and one of the most oversubscribed biotech listings of the year, reflecting strong investor confidence in its differentiated platform.
• Tubulis closed the largest European Series C financing and the largest private financing globally in the antibody-drug conjugate space.
• Artios raised $115m to advance its two first-in-class oncology assets. The company’s lead program is supported by an FDA Fast Track designation and has encouraging early efficacy data.
• ViCentra raised close to $100m, enabling the company to scale manufacturing and accelerate sales in Europe and the U.S.
• Onward Medical completed one of the largest listed European medtech financing rounds of the year, led by a strategic investor, supporting continued commercialization and expansion of its neurostimulation technologies.

EQT Life Sciences supported several of the above financing transactions by follow-on capital and active board-level involvement.

Our portfolio companies achieved several important clinical and commercial milestones during the year, reflecting continued progress across a broad range of therapeutic areas:

• NewAmsterdam reported promising late-stage clinical results demonstrating meaningful improvement in key Alzheimer’s disease markers.
• Tenpoint Therapeutics submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) for BRIMOCHOL™ with the FDA, which marks a significant step towards commercialisation.
• Onward Medical received full regulatory clearance in both the U.S. and Europe, enabling the start of commercial sales.
• Agomab Therapeutics achieved the primary endpoint in a landmark Phase 2a clinical trial for anti-fibrosis therapy in Crohn’s disease.
• Perfuze completed its clinical study evaluating the safety and effectiveness of its stroke clot-removal device, demonstrating outcomes that support its potential as a best-in-class treatment for acute ischemic stroke.
• Xeltis met the primary endpoint of its AXESS EU trial, supporting advancement toward commercialization of its restorative vascular implant for dialysis access.
• PanTera commenced construction of a production centre in Belgium. The facility is expected to support future supply of actinium-225 for targeted alpha therapies and represents a meaningful step in strengthening the radiopharmaceutical ecosystem.
• Luma Vision received FDA clearance for its first product, an advanced heart imaging system used during procedures to treat irregular heart rhythms. The company also completed two clinical studies demonstrating that its second-generation system delivers improved efficiency and workflow optimisation for clinicians.

Market conditions improved materially during the year, with the XBI rising significantly year-to-date, the reopening of the biotech IPO window, and strong demand for high-quality crossover financings, as reflected across our portfolio.

Team Updates

During the year, we strengthened our team. Laurenz Govaerts was promoted to Director, reflecting his continued contributions to investment execution and portfolio development. Prashanthi Ramesh and Sanchita Pasi were each promoted to Vice President, recognizing their expanding roles across investments and portfolio company support. We further expanded our team with the addition of Oscar Marshall as Associate in our Amsterdam office and Brett Geiger as Vice President in our Boston office, reinforcing our global footprint and sector expertise. In addition, we strengthened our legal capabilities with the hiring of Zoë van den Broek as Vice President in our Amsterdam-based legal team, enhancing in-house support across transactions and portfolio matters.

Looking Ahead

Looking ahead, EQT Life Sciences will continue to invest in line with its established strategies across biotechnology and medical technology, focusing on highly differentiated companies addressing areas of significant unmet medical need. We anticipate several important potential clinical and regulatory milestones across the portfolio, including:

• Phase 3 readouts from Oculis’ and NewAmsterdam’s lead programs
• Pivotal trial data from Onward Medical related to its ARC-IM system
• Phase 2b results from Evommune and Xylocor
• Phase 1 results from Muna Therapeutics’ lead program in Alzheimer’s
• Potential approval of Brimochol from Tenpoint Therapeutics
• Further commercial momentum for Neurent, Nobi, Neuros and Phagenesis, with increasing market penetration in the U.S. and the potential to drive meaningful revenue contributions in the coming years

These milestones and the continued operational execution position EQT Life Sciences well for sustained progress and value creation.

EQT Life Sciences is firmly established as one of Europe’s largest and most experienced life sciences investors and a cornerstone of EQT’s integrated global healthcare platform. We are grateful to our investors for their continued trust and partnership, as well as to our business partners, portfolio companies, scientific advisors, and industry peers for their ongoing support and shared dedication to advancing healthcare innovation.

We look forward to the opportunities ahead in 2026.

EQT Life Sciences wishes you a Happy New Year.

René Kuijten
Partner and Head of EQT Life Sciences