Technology Investing: One VC's View of the Value Proposition for Today's Market

Technology-based discovery start-ups step up to the plate with two strikes against them. New pharmaceutical technologies have thus far failed to accelerate discovery or reduce drug development times, and thus failed to solve the industry's R&D productivity dilemma. And in-licensing companies have proliferated, making the value proposition for investing in new discovery-oriented companies tougher to support. Nonetheless, finely tuned rationales for making such investments do exist, premised on the twin rationales of shortcuts through the mire of biological risk and freedom to operate through the minefield of industry patents.