Financing Life Science Innovation: Venture Capital, Corporate Governance and Commercialization

The life sciences are widely treated as a field and an industry with high-growth potential, and while neoclassical economic theory prescribes that capital are invested in emerging industries, there is a perceived shortage of venture capital among life science entrepreneurs. Financing Life Science Innovation reviews the literature on venture capital, corporate governance, and life science venturing and presents a study of the Swedish life science industry and the venture capital investors being active in financially and managerially supporting life science start-up firms. The study reveals that venture capital investors, life science entrepreneurs, and innovation system actors today face the challenge of supplying adequate amounts of capital to an industry that may produce tomorrow's health care innovations. Changes in scientific research practices, the structure of the international finance market, and industry policy are all contributing to what is frequently treated as a shortage of venture capital in the life sciences.