Abingworth's Bet On Lombard: Best Of Both Worlds For VCs

As venture investing in medical devices continues to split between early- and late-stage deals, investors increasingly face a choice: early-stage deals, where valuations are low, but risk is high and timelines are generally long; and late-stage opportunities, where risk is lower and timelines shorter, but the valuations are much higher. What if, however, you could find an opportunity with the timelines and risk profile of a late-stage deal, at the valuation of an early-stage deal? That's what investors at London-based Abingworth LLP believe they've found in Lombard Medical Inc., a company with a novel approach to endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair, that has just taken a £27.5 million investment that it expects will fund FDA approval and US commercialization of its novel Aorfix technology. [See Deal]

The £27.5 million that Abingworth and co-investor MVM Life Science Partners LLP will invest (together with existing investors) will come in two tranches, approximately £13 million in a first investment...