The French government has launched a new investment fund to attract capital to the country's languishing medium-sized biotech companies. However, scientists argue that the fund is not nearly generous enough to help ease the chronic investment shortage for French biotech companies hoping to grow into global players.
The fund -- termed the fund of funds for technology (le Fonds de Fonds Technologique (FFT)) - plans to spend 150 million euros each year over the next three years, matching VC investments in medium-sized companies that have the potential to go to the stock market. In contrast to previous funds, which have distributed funding more equally among companies, the FFT will support VCs targeting companies that have been identified as innovative and most likely to bring new products to the market according to the highly competitive criteria of the European Investment Bank, which is itself contributing 50 million euro to the FFT.
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