Biopharma and venture capital: a deep dive

Deep pools of private capital have become available to young drug developers in the past few years. The pandemic triggered a new flood of cash, but the inflows of money had already picked up some time before, with Covid-19 merely reinforcing a new appreciation of the sector’s attributes.

But how permanent will these new fund flows prove? And where exactly is this new money coming to rest? Our new report, free to download here, seeks to answer these and other questions, via interviews with leading venture investors and data from Evaluate Pharma.

The report reveals some of the investment trends that have developed over the past five years. One of the clear findings is how round sizes have ballooned, as venture funds have focused ever larger amounts of money on fewer companies.

“Covid has focused minds. Chief investment officers everywhere are being encouraged to invest in healthcare and biotech,” says Antoine Papiernik, managing partner of Sofinnova, a European venture fund. 

“Science for the most part is getting funded, but through a much more judicious deployment of capital than historically,” says Tim Haines, managing partner of the UK venture firm Abingworth.