Essex Woodlands gathers $900M fund

Anyone in the biotech field looking for fresh investment capital should turn their attention to Essex Woodlands Health Ventures. The venture firm has pulled together $900 million for a new life sciences fund that will invest in biotech, pharmaceutical, medical device and health care service companies.

In what is described as one of the biggest funds ever put together in this field, Essex Woodlands is hoping to repeat past successes that include Dow Pharmaceutical Sciences (bought by Valeant for $485 million) and LipoSonix (bought by Medicis Pharmaceutical for $300 million.) The venture firm says it will invest this new money in portfolio companies as well as new players. But VentureBeat notes that while Essex Woodlands will consider early-stage ventures, it's never been attracted to seed investments.

Essex Woodlands, based in Palo Alto, had hoped to hit a billion dollars for this new fund. But given the economic circumstances, they're likely to make just as big a splash at $900 million.

- check out this release
- read the story from VentureBeat

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