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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe uncertainty of health care reform and a bad economy curtailed venture capital flow in 2009. That trend hit Indianapolis,
but the rest of the state actually saw an increase.
In 14 deals, Hoosier
companies pulled in a total of $76.3 million last year, a 1-percent increase over total investments the
previous year, according to data released last month by BioEnterprise, a Cleveland-based life sciences development group.
In 2008, only seven health care companies in Indiana scored venture capital,
but they averaged larger amounts of capital: $10.8 million per deal. In 2009, average investments fell
by half, to $5.45 million per deal.
Around the Midwest, venture investing
in health care companies fell 26 percent, to $780 million, according to BioEnterprise. The declines were
similar nationally, according to an annual study by the National Venture Capital Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
“This was a difficult year for emerging health care ventures in
the Midwest and nationally,” said Baiju R. Shah, CEO of BioEnterprise. “The global recession
combined with the industry uncertainties related to U.S. health care reform dampened investment.”
Indianapolis, however, suffered even more. Companies in the metro area
attracted $41.2 million last year—44 percent less than the year before. The number of deals rose
from six to nine.
Two of those deals went to one company, Nico Corp.,
a medical-device maker that secured a total of $11.8 million in two rounds of financing.
Picking up Indianapolis’ slack was Endocyte Inc., the West Lafayette-based cancer drug developer.
It raised $26 million last year.
Two other West
Lafayette companies—Matrix-Bio Inc. and Kylin Therapeutics Inc.—pulled in small amounts of venture
capital.
Also, Evansville-based Achieve CCA Inc., a medical-debt collection
company, raised $5 million in its first round of financing.
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