Biopharma ends decade with near-record investment — but is it going to the right places?
In 2009, the mood at JP Morgan was somber. I wasn’t there — your humble correspondent was learning algebra at the time — but that year, the financial crisis came to biotech and conversations at the often-audacious Westin centered around sheer survival. The traditional lavish opening-night gala was canceled.
Venture funding would indeed fall that year, but what followed was a decade of almost unimpeded growth. After the amount raised for healthcare venture crashed 65% to $1.8 billion in 2009, it doubled back in 2010 to $3.6 billion and, according to the annual report just released by SVB Leerink, grew until the amount raised in the last year of the decade was $10.7 billion, more than five times the first year.
“We’ve seen a really nice upcycle since 2013 in IPOs and investment,” report author Jonathan Norris told Endpoints News. “And a lot of people in 2016 thought the ride was over but now here we are in 2020, and we’ve had the best two years we’ve seen.”
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