Sophisticated European and UK investors seek potentially profitable deals with US biotechnology startups, which opens opportunities for American scientists at a time of caution in US capital markets. Between January 2001 and the end of March 2002, venture capitalists (VCs) based outside the United States raised 36 new funds to invest wholly or significantly in the life sciences. In the aggregate, those new funds represent $12 billion (US) for the life sciences and other technology companies, according to VentureWire, which tracks the private investment industry.
Much of that money is headed to the United States, thanks to the strength of the NASDAQ stock market, where VCs sell their private equities to the public. The success of biotechnology companies in the NASDAQ spurs many overseas VCs to put their money in American companies, says Ramesh Ratan, chief financial officer of Enanta Pharmaceuticals, a Massachusetts-based drug-discovery technology firm that has a history ...
