Tag: investment
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Venture Fund Raises $50M for Life Science Investments
Forbion Capital Partners in the Netherlands says it is closing a new $50 million fund for investing in life science start-up companies nearing liquidity. The company’s second FCF 1 Co-Investment Fund plans to invest additional capital into its current portfolio of life science and biomedical technology companies. Forbion specializes in backing new businesses with late…
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Commentary: Manufacturing the Health Care Venture Crisis
Rahm Emanuel, the current mayor Chicago and former chief of staff to President Obama, once famously said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) has gone Emanuel one better, using highly selected bits and pieces from an industry survey to predict an imminent retreat by investors…
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Gilead Sciences to Acquire Biotech Pharmasset for $11B
Pharmaceutical maker Gilead Sciences in Foster City, California says it will acquire the biotechnology company Pharmasset Inc. in Princeton, New Jersey, with the transaction expected to close in the first quarter of 2012. In the deal, Gilead will pay $137 per share, for a total value of about $11 billion. Pharmasset is a clinical-stage company…
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Diagnostics Developer Secures $100M Series C Financing
Biocartis, a diagnostic systems company in Lausanne, Switzerland says it completed raising €71 million (US$100 million) in series C equity funds, led by the company’s senior management and backed by current and new investors, as well as industrial collaborators. Series C financing is the third round of equity funding after start-up. Biocartis develops compact molecular…
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Biotech Start-Up Lands $15M Series A Round
Allena Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Newton, Massachusetts, a biotechnology start-up company, says it has secured $15 million in Series A venture capital financing, the first round of funding after seed capital. The company was founded by Alexey Margolin and Robert Gallotto, former executives at Alnara Pharmaceuticals that was acquired by Eli Lilly and company in July…
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GSK to Fund Canadian Life Sciences Start-Ups, Institutes
The global pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline Inc. (GSK) announced in Toronto a new $50 million fund for early stage life sciences research in Canada. GSK says the Canada Life Sciences Innovation Fund will identify investment opportunities at Canada’s academic and health institutions, translational research centers, and start-up companies. Paul Lucas, president of GlaxoSmithKline Canada, calls the…
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Diagnostics Company Lands $20 Million Investment Round
NanoString Technologies Inc., a Seattle-based privately held developer of medical science diagnostic tools, says it has closed a $20 million equity deal to finance the company’s continued growth. The series D round — the company’s fourth funding cycle after start-up — includes the first investment by GE’s healthymagination Fund. NanoString Technologies makes molecular diagnostic equipment…
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Canadian Corporate R&D Spending Drops for 5th Straight Year
Industry market research company Research Infosource in Toronto, Ontario says total corporate R&D spending in Canada dropped for the fifth year in a row in the 2010 fiscal year, despite an increase in revenues for these companies. The top R&D spenders among Canadian companies in 2010 were found in the information technology, engineering, and aerospace…
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Math Model Detects Financial Asset Bubbles
Statisticians in the U.S. and France have devised a mathematical model that they say can detect asset bubbles, such as vastly over-valued stocks, in real time. Robert Jarrow of Cornell University and risk management company Kamakura Corp. in Honolulu, Younes Kchia at Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, and Philip Protter of Columbia University published their findings…
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Q3 Venture Investments Rise in China, Decline in Europe
Venture capital (VC) investments, according to Dow Jones VentureSource, moved in opposite directions in China and Europe during the third quarter of 2011. Dow Jones VentureSource is a database of investments from 67,000 venture-backed companies in North America, Europe, Israel, China, and India. In the third quarter, investors put $1.3 billion into 89 deals for…