The government will publish the interim results of the biomed funds tender on Thursday, when the bidders will have to submit letters of intent testifying to their ability to raise at least $30 million. Any fund that cannot do so will be eliminated from the tender.
Sources inform ''Globes'' that Orbimed Advisors LLC is close to securing almost all the funding needed to set up a fund in full ($70 million). The joint fund of San Francisco-based Bay City Capital and 7 Health Ventures run by managing partner Dalia Megiddo, will probably also make the cut.
Medica Venture Partners said today that it was making good progress on raising the capital. Pitango Venture Capital quit the tender several months ago.
The funds make the cut will have until April 30, 2011 to raise the balance of the capital required.
"We strongly hope that there will be at least two funds," said Ora Dar, head of life sciences at the Office of the Chief Scientist, ahead of a briefing on the subject at the Ernst & Young and "Globes" Israel Journey 2010 Conference on the high tech, biotech, and venture capital industries. "We have no preference between two or three funds, but if there are only two funds, each of them will get more money, and the amount of money is what is important to us."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 26, 2010
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