Life Science entrepreneurs invited to make funding pitch at Creating Wow! in Life Sciences conference
October 5, 2011
Hatteras Venture Partners to review applications for $125 million early stage fund.
CHARELSTON, SC – October 5, 2011 – South Carolina businesses and entrepreneurs will get the opportunity to pitch their early stage companies to one of the dominant venture funds in the Southeast next month during SCBIO’s Creating Wow! in Life Science Conference in Charleston.
Hatteras Venture Partners of Durham, NC, which has just closed out its first fundraising round of $74 million of a total $125 million fourth fund, is taking applications for meetings through SCBIO, the South Carolina Biotechnology Industry Organization.
“This is the value add that many life science companies in the state are crying for and which SCBIO is providing as part of our effort to grow high- impact, high- wage jobs in South Carolina,” said Wayne Roper, President of SCBIO. “We are true to the promise of our creating Wow! at our conference and grow the life science industry.”
The conference also features James Greenwood, president and CEO of BIO, the world’s largest biotechnology Industry Organization, Joseph Hammang, Senior Director Worldwide Science Policy for Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical research company, and Frank M. Torti, MD, former chief scientist and head of the Food and Drug Administration.
Scott Styles, senior vice president for federal affairs of America’s Health Insurance Plans, and a 15-year veteran of working congressional leadership offices on health care policy will give a political roadmap ahead.
SCBIO will forward all meeting applications to Hatteras to select the best technologies for company interviews and presentations during the organization’s conference Nov. 9-10 at the Charleston Mills House Hotel. The deadline is Oct. 12. (Details are on the organization’s Web site.)
Hatteras Venture Partners is focused on the Southeast because innovation as indicated by National Institutes of Health funding is underdeveloped, said Mike Dial, an associate with the firm.
The Southeast region is home to strong academic medical centers, and we found that if you look at the levels of NIH funding, which is a good proxy for innovation, the Southeast actually receives more NIH dollars than California yet receives approximately one-fifth the level of venture funding, Dial said.
The company has more than $200 million under management in four funds, and is investing in early stage companies, counter to the trend of bio venture capital firms funding only late stage, commercialized enterprises.
They may not have even formed a company yet and it still may be in the project stage, needing $50k to $250K, Dial said.
Average investments range from $2 million to $5 million in biopharma, medical devices, diagnostics, health information technology and services.
Roper, a former congressional chief of staff, was brought on to SCBIO in January to connect the state’s life science companies grow the high impact firms that add more than half the net jobs in the state.
A 2010 study by Battelle Institute found South Carolina has nearly 600 companies in life sciences, employing 13,000 people at an average annual wage of $53,275, more than a 60% higher than the state median wage.
SCBIO has offices in Charleston, Columbia and Greenville.
