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* Wellcome firm gets approval for cancer imaging agent
* First product from Wellcome Trust in two decades
* Follows $80 mln biotech windfall for Gates foundation
By Ben Hirschler
LONDON, May 30 (Reuters) - The Wellcome Trust medicalcharity is to profit from U.S. approval of a new diagnosticcancer test, the first commercial product funded by theorganisation since the sale of its pharmaceuticals business toGlaxo in 1995.
The regulatory green light shows how the world's healthcareleading charities are becoming important sources of finance forbiotech start-ups and can gain when the young firms they backsucceed.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently made a $80million profit from selling a stake in Anacor Pharmaceuticals, a firm it had backed for its work on neglecteddiseases, which is now being bought by Pfizer.
With an endowment of $40 billion, the Gates foundation isthe world's largest charity, while Wellcome has an 18 billionpound ($26 billion) investment portfolio. Their scale makes bothorganisations powerful forces in global medicine.
The new cancer test called Axumin, which got a green lightfrom the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday, wasdeveloped by start-up firm Blue Earth Diagnostics, which isowned by Syncona, Wellcome's biotech investment arm.
It is injected as part of a PET scan and helps revealrecurrent prostate cancer.
"It's a validation of our investment approach," said MartinMurphy, chief executive of Syncona, who said profits would flowback to the main organisation for its charitable work.
Syncona is a major investor in several other companiesdeveloping innovative products that it believes offersubstantial patient benefits, including two firms working ongene therapies for blindness and liver problems.
With 250 million pounds to invest over the long term,Syncona aims to achieve returns that can help fund the charity,while also focusing on unmet medical needs and helping companiesthat would otherwise struggle to raise money.
The Gates Foundation approach is somewhat different. Its"program-related investments" are designed to spur entrepreneursand companies to pursue ideas in the public good, rather thannecessarily to make a profit.
But it still stumbled on a big financial win with Anacor,thanks a soaring share price as the company's drugs madeprogress, and the foundation sold 99 percent of its stake for$86.7 million last November, 17 times its initial 2013investment of $5 million.
The Wellcome Trust sold the majority of its stake in theWellcome drug company to Glaxo in 1995. That led to the creationof Glaxo Wellcome, which later merged with SmithKline Beecham in2000 to form GlaxoSmithKline. (Editing by Jason Neely)
