Bio Equity Risk Management, LLC, which is billing itself as a “boutique healthcare investment firm focused on special situation investments” opened today in Boston, and it looks like the firm will be tackling the biotech, medical device and healthcare IT sectors. Given the near plethora of high-profile mergers and acquisitions in public pharma last year, it will be really interesting to see what they do here – and in the private sector, for that matter.
Even cooler is the company’s latest blog entry, which makes suggestions for reinvigorating biotech investment strategy that reflect almost exactly what we talk about everyday on behalf of one of our own clients. Rhode Island’s Slater Technology Fund, a state-backed venture fund that specializes in seed funding for early-stage life science and IT companies, seeks to help find and nurture nascent biotech companies in the state, and has become increasingly important to RI’s growth as the full weight of the weakening economy hits here. We think there is real value in what the fund does (that’s why we work for them!), but it’s not often you see others openly purporting the same beliefs. Bio Equity specifically suggests both working with government and state bodies to provide funding for early stage drug discovery and development under the supervision or control of venture investors, and working with state bodies and universities to identify and support the most promising technologies, which is what Slater has sought to do with Brown University. It’s not often we find Rhody is ahead of the curve, but the symmetry here is hard to miss.
Check it out! Given the notes above, I’m quite interested to see where these guys will put their money.