The Internet bubble. The optics bubble. The biotech bubble?
With the dramatic upturn in life sciences investments in the past year, longtime biotech investors fear that a glut of capital will create another bubble of investment into too many me-too startups.
The numbers are impressive-or depressing, depending on your point of view. The life sciences sector accounted for 22% of all venture investments last year, up from 13% a year earlier, and ahead of investments in software, telecommunications, and networking, according to the annual PricewaterhouseCoopers/Venture Economics/NVCA MoneyTree Survey. The last time that life sciences accounted for such a large portion of overall venture funding was seven years ago. Venture capitalists pumped a total of $4.7 billion into the sector last year, with $2.8 billion going to biotechnology and $1.9 billion going to medical devices.
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