Essex Woodlands advances toward $1B

Essex Woodlands Health Ventures has raised $794 million toward a $1 billion eighth fund, according to a recent regulatory filing.

The mixed stage health care firm has also closed $54 million toward a $100 million supplemental fund, called Essex Woodlands Health Ventures Fund VIII-A, according to the filing.

The New York-based firm could not immediately be reached for comment.

Investors include the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio. The firm’s latest fund has attracted 27 investors.

The new fund is already substantially larger than the $600 million the firm raised in 2006 and Essex Woodlands is putting its money into companies faster than ever before. The firm has invested $90 million in 20 companies so far this year, putting it on pace to do more deals this year than at any point in the firm’s 23-year history, according to data from Thomson Reuters (publisher of PE Week). —Alexander Haislip