Investing In Life Sciences De Novo
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
In the last two years, several major venture capital firms that had previously been major investors in life sciences companies abandoned health care for the rarified worlds of information technology and telecommunications. This created a void in health care investing that has seen two venture firms formed recently to focus exclusively on life sciences. First was Versant Ventures (formerly Palladium), which was started in September 1999 by the life sciences partners from Brentwood, IVP and Crosspoint Ventures. And more recently, in February 2000, four veterans of the life science investing wars--John Simpson, MD, Fred Dotzler, Richard Ferrari and David Mauney, MD--got together to form De Novo Ventures, which is also health care-focused. In addition to providing financing, De Novo is also looking to take advantage of the extensive operational experience of its partners by providing start-ups with hands-on management expertise.