# Celtic Pharma

Celtic Pharma is a Private Equity based in London, United Kingdom.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Private Equity
- **Headquarters:** London, United Kingdom
- **Region:** Europe
- **Address:** London, United Kingdom
- **Founded:** 2004
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** celticpharma.com
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/celtic-pharma-holdings-advisors-llp

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

Celtic Pharma is a private equity firm based in London, UK. It focuses on a Venture Capital investment approach.

## Sectors

- Pharmaceuticals
- Healthcare Services
- Biotechnology

## People

- John Mayo — Chairman
- Stephen Evans-Freke — Managing Director

## Questions

### Who runs investment decisions at Celtic Pharma?

Stephen Evans-Freke and John Mayo are the firm's managing directors. Evans-Freke built his career in healthcare investment banking at PaineWebber and SG Cowen before co-founding Celtic in 2004. Mayo was group finance director of Glaxo Wellcome and later Marconi plc. The two principals jointly approve all asset acquisitions, per the firm's official communications.

### Does Celtic Pharma participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?

Celtic Pharma does not raise closed-end blind-pool funds and does not invest as a limited partner in other managers. The firm structures transactions on an asset-by-asset basis, matching institutional capital to specific drug-royalty or revenue-interest acquisitions. Investors participate through vehicles established for individual assets rather than through a pooled fund commitment.

### What investment stages does Celtic Pharma typically target?

The firm targets pharmaceutical products that are already approved or in Phase III clinical trials. Celtic underwrites the regulatory and reimbursement risk on therapies nearing or in commercialization, avoiding early-stage drug discovery and preclinical assets. This late-stage focus is designed to reduce binary clinical-trial risk for institutional allocators.

### How is Celtic Pharma related to Royalty Pharma?

Stephen Evans-Freke was a co-founder of Royalty Pharma in the 1990s before establishing Celtic Pharma in 2004 as a separate, actively managed platform. The two firms are independent entities, though both operate in the pharmaceutical royalty acquisition space. Celtic is significantly smaller and structures deals on a more bespoke, asset-by-asset basis compared to Royalty Pharma's publicly traded, large-scale aggregation model.

## Related profiles

- [Celeridem Capital Management](https://altss.com/profile/celeridem-capital-management)
- [Centauri Ventures](https://altss.com/profile/centauri-ventures)

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Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

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