14 LIFE SCIENCES September 2009
Life Sciences:
Funding
T
here will always be
people who come up with
fantastic ideas that could
change the whole life sci-
ences industry.
But those ideas will not see the
light of day without funding to take
them to the next step and beyond.
There are a number of routes
budding entrepreneurs can take to
obtain inward investment to help
develop their ideas.
Scottish enterprise has a num-
ber of schemes and grants that will
provide the necessary cash while,
further down the line, business
angels are usually looking for invest-
ment opportunities.
Jim reid is founder and joint
head of ChimaeraBio, an investment
fund specialising in life sciences
companies. The company is also
now established as a co-investment
partner.
reid has invested in life sciences
companies in the past and wants to
help the latest batch of hopefuls.
he has already put money into 10
life sciences companies in Scot-
land and exited two � Qnostics, a
molecular diagnostics company, in
2006 and Aberdeen University spin-
out haptogen in 2007.
"We are investing the proceeds
of other life sciences successes back
into the life sciences area in Scot-
land," he explains.
"We are looking at early-stage
investments, technology growth
companies, and we are investing in
the region of �50,000 to �500,000
depending on the business. In some
cases, we can double that up with
the Scottish Co-investment Fund
run by Scottish enterprise."
reid says the fund tends to select
businesses on the basis of three
things.
The first is the intellectual assets it
bases the business on; the second is
the management team ChimaeraBio
either brings in or is working with;
and the third is the availability of
exit opportunities for the business.
he explains: "We are interested in
a company's sustainability and we
are interested in growth but it's quite
difficult to get the levels of capital
needed to drive global businesses.
"Therefore the exit has to be part
of the consideration in anything
we do. If we can't see it until too far
a point in time, then we don't get
involved."
One company ChimaeraBio
has selected for investment, which
is matched by the Scottish Co-
investment Fund, is Ocutec, a
Lanarkshire-based medical devices
company.
Ocutec is initially focused on
delivering disposable contact lenses
There is not the venture
capital money in Scotland
that will allow life sciences
to be growing at the rate
at which they should be
Jim Reid,
ChimaeraBio
Invest in excellent ideas
There are a variety of public and private bodies in Scotland willing
and able to help take products from potential to commercial reality

Page 1Page 2Page 3Page 4Page 5Page 6Page 7Page 8Page 9Page 10Page 11Page 12Page 13Page 14Page 15Page 16 Produced by PageSuite