The Post-Bulletin of Rochester, MN sat down with biotech banker G. Steven Burrill, who bullishly amplified on his plans to invest $1 billion into the Pine Island biotechnology project. As he explained to FierceBiotech recently, Burrill plans to put together the big biotech fund to back new technologies coming out of the Mayo Clinic and University of Minnesota while attracting developers to the state.

That's a lot of money, by anyone's measure, but Burrill told the paper he can get it done. And he says it will fit in well with the new reality created by an economic crisis that is shaking the biotech industry to its core.

"We have permanently restructured Wall Street," he told the newspaper. The days of easy money are over. And while $5 million in venture capital may have cost you 30 percent to 50 percent of your company in the good old days, "I will get 90 percent of your company" for the same amount today.

"We will come out of this as a stronger country, a stronger industry," he added. "We know that the world economy is quite messy right now, and, quite frankly, it's going to get messier before it gets better."

- read the report from the Post-Bulletin

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