Venture Capital Investments for the Life Sciences Sector Increase in Q2 2014

According to a new report, venture capital funding for the Life Sciences sector, which includes Biotechnology and Medical Devices, reached $2.5bn in 195 deals for the second quarter of 2014.

The report, “Biotech soars to record high”, which includes data from the MoneyTree™ Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) LLP and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), based on data provided by Thomson Reuters, shows that this quarter was the highest Life Sciences investment since the second quarter 2007 as well as the strongest one since 1995, which is the earliest data recorded by the MoneyTree.

During Q2 2014, VC funding for Life Sciences increased 25% in dollars invested, while the number of deals was flat compared to the same period last year. Dollars flowing into Life Sciences companies accounted for 19% of total, compared to 28% in the second quarter of 2013.
The decrease is due, in part, to the increase in the number of megadeals (investments of $100m and more) occurring in the Software sector.
The average deal size for Life Sciences companies was $12.8m, an increase of 26% year-over-year and 35% quarter-over-quarter.
First-time funding decreased by 20% to $267m while the number of deals decreased by 18% to 32 deals, when compared to Q2 2013. However, follow-on funding increased 34% to $2.2m and the number of deals increased 3% to 163 deals when compared to the same period of last year.

The Biotechnology industry had $1.8bn flowing into 122 deals while investments in Medical Device companies reached $649m in 73 deals.

The top five metropolitan regions receiving the most venture capital funding were San Francisco Bay Area ($866m going into 54 deals), Boston ($540m), San Diego Metro ($167m), New York Metro ($125m) and Great Lakes ($123m).

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