Life sciences investing is doing relatively well locally, despite slow economy - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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“I think, as I have for a few years, that thers is a lot of good and interesting and verycompellin technology, which is the basis for developin any companies. So I think we have a lot of good materiak tostart with. “The issue that we which is not at all unique toLouisvilles … is the need for seed-stage capital. And that is beingv addressed here by a fewdifferent One, there are a coupler of angel groups that have formed. The stater has some programs. The seed fund that I manag e is obviouslya source.
So, there are some sourcez for seed capital, but we always can use “And in this current economif environment, it is even more an issue because the fund raising isvery difficult. So, we as we need to make sure that we can fund the companies for longert periodsof time, support them for so they can achieve more milestone and weather the storm at the same … with the expectation that once things get betted and these companies get a little furtherr along, it will be easier to get Are you seeing many new ideas that could becoms companies?
“We’re definitely seeing a steady I can’t really tell you that is it is a growing But there seems to be a steadh flow from the Are there specific areas or industrieas that are doing well? “Certainly, in the cancer it looks like the (Jamese Graham Brown) cancer center is doing particularly There have been a couple of stem cell projects that have come out of the “Then, we have this nanotechnology lab that was and one of our OrthoData, came out of … That’s a relatively new facility, but I thino we will see more coming out. And I am reallyg excited about that.
“The team that came to the has only been here for a year or two atthis … (I am) pretty encouraged by some of the work that’x going on over there.” How many companiess have you invested in througj the seed fund and Triathlon? “The seed fund has five investments in its Triathlon has invested in one of them, in and is very close to investinh in another. “They have been tracking two otherzas well. There is a definitely significant interest in the companiesz that are beingdeveloped here.” Is it fair to say that withoug money, groundbreaking technologies and therapies cannot advance? “It’sd hard to tell.
Some of them may kind of wither onthe vine.” Because they are early in their developmen and there is not a largde pool of local funds for early-stage “it would be hard for an outside investof to come in and (invest at) this earlg of a stage.” “There’s always the possibility that an investor from somewhere else would say, ‘I will invesyt in your company if you move to Boston or which is obviously not what we want.
“There is enough grany money, especially with the president’s new which includes increased funding for research and development oflife “Also, there is some other grant money available throughb the stimulus package that is hopefully going to make difference.”