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Biotech Funding: Where the Money's At

 
• By Hazel Dawson

The $752 million worth of new funds raised by leading European biotechnology VCs over the past three months suggests that Europe's private biotech market is picking up. But these funds won't simply land in companies' laps. Europe's biotech managers, many of whom have raised funds only during boom times, will have to satisfy increasingly stringent criteria to secure their slice of the pie. Yet although late-stage products and critical mass still top some investors' wish lists, selected platform and early-stage groups capable of rapidly advancing a broad range of compounds into the clinic have also found funding.

New fund launches over the summer of 2003 from two of Europe's top life sciences VCs, Schroder Ventures Life Sciences and Abingworth Management Ltd. suggest that the fragile recovery seen in the public markets may be starting to trickle through to private biotech—to the relief of the majority of Europe's biotech firms, who are fast running out of cash. Since the beginning of the year, European public company valuations have increased—some as much as 80%. Between July and September 2003, private funding for Europe's biotech companies has topped $220 million (€192 million)—almost $20 million up on the total amount raised during the entire first half of the year, according to Windhover's Strategic Intelligence Systems Database (see Exhibit 1).

Yet while Europe's longest and harshest biotechnology funding drought may show signs of ending, companies will still have to work...

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