Biotech witnesses deep plunge in venture investing

The gusher of venture funds that flowed into the biotech field thinned significantly in the fourth quarter of last year. With risk-taking out of fashion, VC investments plunged 33 percent in the last three months of 2008. And biotech investing dropped 31 percent, according to a report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters.

The report says that $1.6 billion was invested in 185 companies in the quarter, which also represents a drop in new deals by 22 percent. Analysts also saw an overall drop in the number of new acquisitions made in the quarter. Only 37 buyouts were reported, compared to 88 from the same period a year ago. And another traditional exit path for investors--IPOs--remained in deep freeze with zero activity.

Tracy Lefteroff, global managing partner of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, says that we may have hit bottom and new investing will pick up again later this year. "Maybe not in the first quarter," he said, "but certainly throughout the year."

- read the AP report

ALSO: It's not all bad news, though. AC Immune in Europe is reporting that it has raised $35 million in a Series C. Release

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