US-based financial services firm Burrill & Company launched a $313m fund on December 1st dedicated to investing in life sciences companies, spanning therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices, healthcare delivery, wellness and digital health.
G. Steven Burrill, chief executive officer of Burrill & Company, said: "We are pleased to have surpassed our initial goal of $300m in capital commitments for the first close. We look forward to achieving our final goal of $500m in capital commitments by June 2012."
The fund follows Burrill’s investment in a number of light sciences companies in the past few years including heart testing smartphone application developer AliveCor and Yaupon Parmaceuticals, and achieved an exit when portfolio company Pharmasset was acquired by Gilead Sciences for $11bn last month.