Following a well-defined trail of venture groups into late-stage investing, San Francisco-based Foresite Capital Management says it has wrapped a $100 million fund that will be heavily focused on the most disruptive and most promising late-stage technology it can find in biotech, genomics and diagnostics, among other healthcare fields.
Foresite's release spotlights a slate of biotech investments in the portfolio, including AcelRx ($ACRX), Keryx ($KERX) and Puma Biotechnology ($PBYI). And Jim Tananbaum, founder and managing director of Foresite Capital Management, says he's eager to jump into other companies that are going places.
"We are marrying the best practices of growth investing with healthcare specialization," Tananbaum announced in a statement. "We are proud of our capital base, extremely excited about the prospects for healthcare growth, and believe on a risk-adjusted basis there has never been a better time to have this focus."
In recent years a number of biotech venture groups have steered new funds toward late-stage assets, looking to improve their shot at a relatively quick return in an industry which can be notoriously slow and risky when it comes to new product development. But with players crowding one end of the field, startups have complained that getting enough cash to make it through the early-stage valley of death is tougher than ever.
- here's the press release
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