Financing innovation: venture capital investments in biotechnology firms

Abstract

This secondary data-based research defines and describes the role of venture capital (VC) in the financing of the innovation system of the biotech industry; with a special focus on Italy. The research further analyses the international and Italian biotech industry and verifies the correlation between VC and value creation for biotech firms. Its value stems from the fact that it defines and helps in the comprehension of the link between the biotech industry and particular risk capital investors (VCs); while providing a context of prescriptive actions and processes and a valuable theoretical basis for empirical development and practical application. The findings show that Italian biotech companies have become an established industrial reality, capable of maximising investments in terms of value creation, portraying internationally competitive scientific excellence, with valuable links to academia, and innovative in spirit. For biotech companies, especially Italian ones, VC appears to be a factor of growth and success, with all evidence indicating that the amalgam of VC and biotech companies sums up to more than its constituent parts. It is also presumed that it is the very differences in their organisational competencies and drivers that lead to success.