M&G’s Catalyst invests $57 million with pharma innovator SkyCell to improve the transportation of temperature-controlled medicines

London, 31 October 2023 – M&G Investments has made a US$57 million investment with SkyCell – a Swiss-based technology firm that is seeking to change the face of global pharmaceutical supply chains. Through its supply of temperature-controlled containers and technological solutions that prevent damage to vital medicine, SkyCell is also helping companies to address their CO2 footprint and move away from throw-away solutions.

M&G’s investment will support SkyCell’s continued international expansion as it increases production of specialist, temperature-controlled containers for the safe and reliable delivery of life-saving pharmaceuticals. The company currently transports circa US$1.5 billion of vaccines, cancer drugs, diabetes care and diagnostic solutions to patients globally each month.

With circa $US 35 billion of pharmaceutical products lost annually due to temperature deviation, safe and reliable cold chain supply is a critical challenge for the global pharmaceutical industry, particularly with the rapid growth of temperature sensitive medicines. SkyCell’s specialist hybrid containers protect from both high and low temperatures to ensure that critical medicines are viable when they reach patients. Their lightweight design also saves up to 50% of CO2 emissions compared to traditional cold chain containers and minimises landfill and throwaway packaging.

In addition, SkyCell’s proprietary software platform predicts CO2 impact, plans routes to maximise sustainability and oversees shipments around the world. An automated feature reduces approval times from days to hours, allowing important drugs to reach customers quickly whilst minimising inventory and expense for its pharmaceutical clients.

M&G’s investment was made by Catalyst, the firm’s £5 billion purpose-led flexible private assets strategy, which invests in innovative solutions to some of the world’s biggest environmental and social challenges on behalf of the £129 billion Prudential With-Profits Fund and its circa 5 million customers. Praveg Patil, from M&G’s investment team, joins the SkyCell board as a non-executive director.

Praveg Patil, Deputy Head of Investments (EMEA) at M&G Catalyst, comments: “There’s a huge shortage of long-term, scale-up funding for “hard science” companies developing IP-based solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems and investors such as M&G can play an important role in helping these businesses to grow and provide much-needed capital at various stages.

“By becoming a long term partner to SkyCell, we are enabling the global pharmaceutical industry to develop more sustainable ways of transporting temperature sensitive medicines and reducing the amount of medicines that will be thrown away.

Welcoming the new investment, Richard Ettl co-founder and CEO of SkyCell, adds: “We are delighted to welcome M&G as a long-term partner as we continue our global expansion apace. The wider industry has ambitious targets towards net zero as currently more than 70% of pharmaceuticals are distributed in throwaway packaging. This is a significant contributor to both CO2 impact and landfill and we will increasingly see regulatory pressures to address this in the form of import taxes. SkyCell’s containers save up to 50% of CO2 emissions compared to traditional cold chain containers and minimise landfill throwaway packaging. With this new investment, we can further accelerate along our growth path and strengthen our global footprint.”

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Notes to editors

M&G’s £74 billion Private Markets business has over two decades of experience in investing in private credit, private equity, real estate, infrastructure and structured credit on behalf of Prudential policyholders and external clients.

The Catalyst investment strategy sits within the Private Markets business at M&G. Drawing on this expertise and track record in private assets, Catalyst is a global, flexible strategy investing in companies with innovative solutions to some of the world’s biggest environmental and social challenges.

OpenAbout M&G Investments

M&G Investments is part of M&G plc, a savings and investment business which was formed in 2017 through the merger of Prudential plc’s UK and Europe savings and insurance operation and M&G, its wholly owned international investment manager. M&G plc listed as an independent company on the London Stock Exchange in October 2019 and has £332 billion of assets under management (as at 30 June 2023). M&G plc has customers in the UK, Europe, the Americas and Asia, including individual savers and investors, life insurance policy holders and pension scheme members.

For nearly nine decades M&G Investments has been helping its customers to prosper by putting investments to work, which in turn creates jobs, homes and vital infrastructure in the real economy. Its investment solutions span equities, fixed income, multi asset, cash, private debt, infrastructure and real estate.

M&G recognises the importance of responsible investing and is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) and is a member of the Climate Bonds Initiative Partners Programme.

M&G plc has committed to achieve net zero carbon emissions on its total book of assets under management and administration by 2050 and committed to reduce operational carbon emissions as a corporate entity to net zero by 2030.

For more information, please visit: https://global.mandg.com/

OpenAbout SkyCell

SkyCell is a purpose-led technology company transforming the pharmaceutical supply chain through a combination of proprietary software, hardware, and big data. It is the leading manufacturer of temperature-controlled door-to-door container solutions that allow pharma companies to optimise their supply chain by reducing, and even predicting, the risks associated with delivering sensitive drugs by air. Its SaaS solution, SkyCell SECURE, combines simulation data with operational data (S+O data), enabling pharma companies to have real-time, end-to-end oversight of every shipment around the world, and its automated approval capability reduces quality approval time from an average of 14 days to just hours, getting life-changing drugs to consumers faster.

Designed with sustainability as a core principle, SkyCell’s technologies protect healthcare systems by reducing in-transit failure rate to a market-leading low of less than 0.1% temperature excursions and reduce the CO2 impact of each shipment by almost half the average rate. SkyCell is a climate-neutral company (Scope 1 & 2 compensated) and has committed to the goal of end-to-end net-zero by 2040. SkyCell’s sustainability targets are science led and aligned to both the Paris Agreement and UN sustainable development goals.

Founded in Switzerland with a vision to have zero loss in the pharma supply chain, the company has been validated by the majority of the top 20 pharma companies. SkyCell is the number three player in the world in temperature-controlled air freight solutions, in a fast growing market estimated to double to USD 5.5 billion by 2030.

https://www.skycell.ch/

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