Venture capital drives biotech. Early investments power the huge capital needs and sustain the far-longer-than-normal development timelines that drug development requires. Venture capital dollars brought about new treatments like Yescarta, one of the first FDA-approved cell therapies for cancer, and even major biotech companies like Genentech.
It’s easy to imagine those piles of cash are coming from billionaires’ bank vaults or some arcane Wall Street magic. But more often than not, those millions are coming from people with jobs that don’t bring them anywhere near a lab bench.
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