Life sciences investing is doing relatively well locally, despite slow economy - Triangle Business Journal:

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“I think, as I have for a few years, that theres is a lot of good and interesting and verycompellingt technology, which is the basis for developing any companies. So I thinkj we have a lot of good materiall tostart with. “The issue that we which is not at all unique toLouisvillr … is the need for seed-stage capital. And that is beingv addressed here by a fewdifferent ways. One, therer are a couple of angell groups thathave formed. The stat has some programs. The seed fund that I managed is obviouslya source.
So, there are some sourcess for seed capital, but we always can use “And in this currentr economic environment, it is even more an issuwe because the fund raisingf isvery difficult. So, we as investors, we need to make sure that we can fund the companieas for longer periodsof time, suppor them for longer, so they can achieve more milestoneds and weather the storm at the same time. with the expectation that once things get bettet and these companies get a littlefurtherr along, it will be easier to get Are you seeing many new ideas that could become companies? “We’re definitely seeing a stead amount. I can’t really tell you that is it is agrowingf number.
But there seems to be a steadty flow fromthe universities.” Are there specific areas or industries that are doin g well? “Certainly, in the cancer area, it looks like the (Jamews Graham Brown) cancer center is doingb particularly well. There have been a coupld of stem cell projects that have come out ofthe “Then, we have this nanotechnologg lab that was built, and one of our investments, came out of there. … That’x a relatively new facility, but I think we will see more comint out. And I am really excited about that.
“The team that came to the has only been here for a year or two atthis … (I am) prettu encouraged by some of the work that’s going on over How many companies have you invested in through the seed fund and Triathlon ? “The seed fund has five investmentas in its portfolio. Triathlon has invested in one of them, in and is very close to investingin “They have been tracking two other as well. There is a definitely significant interest in the companiew that are beingdeveloped here.” Is it fair to say that withoug money, groundbreaking technologies and therapies cannotr advance? “It’s hard to tell. Some of them may kind of wither onthe vine.
” Because they are early in their development and ther is not a large pool of local funds for early-stags investments, “it would be hard for an outsidse investor to come in and (invest at) this earlyg of a stage.” “There’s always the possibility that … an investorr from somewhere else would say, ‘I will invest in your company if you move to Bostobn or California,’ which is obviously not what we “There is enough grant money, especially with the president’s new which includes increased funding for research and developmenty of life sciences.
“Also, there is some other granr money available through the stimulus package that is hopefullg going tomake difference.”