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Blackstone on Monday announced the close of the largest life sciences private fund ever raised.

At $6.3 billion, the fund is nearly 40% bigger than a $4.6 billion predecessor that Blackstone completed in 2020. Both funds are part of the Blackstone Life Sciences, or “BXLS,” platform, which launched in 2018 and, as of late last year, had $15 billion in assets under its management.

According to Blackstone, its partnerships have produced 34 approved innovative medicines and devices. Late-stage assets in the BXLS franchise have an 86% approval, Blackstone said, which outperforms the drug industry’s average.

Blackstone stands as the world’s largest private equity firm when measured by assets under management, which total more than $1 trillion.

As of late, biopharma companies — and the products and technologies they create — have played a more significant part of that enormous pool. Just a few weeks ago, Blackstone committed $400 million over a four-year span to support Teva Pharmaceutical’s development of a gut disease drug.

That investment came five months after the firm said it would pay Merck & Co. $700 million to cover a portion of the research costs for a promising cancer therapy. In exchange, Blackstone became eligible to receive future royalties on net sales of the so-called antibody-drug conjugate.

Another recent transaction was an R&D funding agreement with Johnson & Johnson for an acute myeloid leukemia medication. Additionally, in early 2025, Novartis agreed to purchase a company it founded with Blackstone Life Sciences. The $3.1 billion acquisition of Anthos Therapeutics gave Novartis a cardiovascular health medicine in late-stage testing.

In a statement, Blackstone said such deals affirm the ability of its BXLS franchise to “source, finance, and actively manage large-scale investments in products” — and, in turn, lead the market in transaction count among sellers of drug and medical technology royalties. The cholesterol-lowering shot Leqvio, the rare disease medicine Amvuttra and the blood cancer drug Imbruvica are some of the medicines Blackstone’s capital has helped finance developmentally or commercially.

Nicholas Galakatos, global head of Blackstone Life Sciences, added that the company’s track record backing dozens of drugs that went on to secure approval “highlights how we work successfully with industry trailblazers to help bring their most important products to patients around the world.”

A January report from Bain & Co. found global private equity activity in healthcare set a record last year, with more than $190 billion in estimated deal value. Biopharma deals accounted for an estimated $80 billion of that total, up from $55 billion in 2024. The report’s authors wrote that this sector continues to be a “major focus” for investors.

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Blackstone caps off private equity's largest-ever life sciences fund