There's more good news about the level of venture funding available in biotech. The new report out today (see below) underscores that investors still see the drug development industry as a great place to find some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world. It has to make you wonder what investors see in a field that is generating a remarkably low level of new product approvals. It's clear, though, that investors are keenly aware that the future of biotech is bright. We're seeing unprecedented numbers of companies engaged in ambitious licensing deals, all of which point to biotechnology as the source for most of the biggest advances to come in therapeutics. As healthcare moves to an era when drugs will be more closely matched to patients, biotech will play the leading role. Of course, in the process pharma and biotech will continue to meld into one industry as bigger companies buy into the field. Barring a significant backlash on the regulatory side of things, biotech's future has never looked brighter. And its technology has never looked more promising. - John Carroll