Biotech Funding Expected To Rise On Good 1995

Calendar year 1995 "was a great year for capital raising in the biotech sector and, in general, a good year for biotech stocks," according to Steven Burrill of private US merchant bank Burrill & Craves.

The fourth quarter of 1995 continued the biotechnology financing boom from the prior quarter, bringing the total raised by the sector to over $6 billion in the full year. Similar funding for 1994 (public and private offerings, venture funding and partnering) only garnered around $3.3 billion, the B&C report notes.

According to B&C's analysis, fourth-quarter 1995 ran almost three times ahead of the same quarter for 1994, in total raising roughly $2 billion compared with a little over $700 million. And public offerings alone were around nine times higher in fourth-quarter 1995 (at over $1.1 billion), vs $120 million in the like, 1994 period.