Children's Hospital of Philadelphia made a bet on a startup drug company working on a therapy to treat a rare form of blindness. Six years later, the hospital saw a $456 million payday from its investment, according to Bloomberg.
In 2013, the hospital spun off a gene therapy company developing a treatment for blindness that its scientists helped develop. At the time, the hospital agreed to invest $50 million and became the venture's largest shareholder.
On Feb. 25, the $50 million investment paid off when drug giant Roche Holding agreed to pay $4.8 billion to buy that spinoff drug company — Spark Therapeutics.
The children's hospital had a 10.6 percent stake in the drugmaker, which means the nonprofit hospital will make about $456 million. The hospital already has made about $285 million from its investment in Spark.
That means the hospital's total proceeds of $741 million would represent a more than twentyfold return on investment, according to the report. The calculation is based on the roughly $33 million that Spark said the children's hospital invested.
Read the full report here.