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Compared to the second quarter of 2008, healthcare investment is down 14% to $2.23 billion. Breaking it down further, biopharma firms got 14% less, device firms 26% less, but services received triple their figure. The overall quarterly figure was a 63% jump from the previous quarter, though it's small solace seeing how the $4 billion invested in first-quarter 2009 was the lowest venture quarter (all sectors) since 1998. The health sector passed a curious milestone: For the first time it topped information technology investments, according to VentureSource. The quarter saw more big-ticket rounds of funding, with Clovis Oncology leading the way with a massive $146 million first round that closed in May. The big question is whether the one-quarter rebound is sustainable. The third quarter is certainly off to a decent start. Medical device firm Oraya Therapeutics Inc. of Newark, Calif., said Monday it has raised $42 million in a C round from co-leaders Scale Venture Partners and Domain Associates LLC. Current investors Essex Woodlands Health Ventures and drug device combination specialists Synergy Life Science Partners also joined the syndicate. Scale managing partner Mark Brooks and Domain partner Brian Halak have joined the Oraya board. Oraya is working on an low-radiation X-ray treatment for the most common form of age-related blindness. So far only one approved drug, Genentech Inc.'s Lucentis, has shown the ability to reverse the degeneration. Oraya's backers see the chance to reduce the amount of drugs -- and thus injections into the eyeball -- needed for treatment. Oraya will pour the funds into clinical trials to gauge how the X-ray treatment, called IRay, works in combination with current drugs, said Brooks. Brooks said the funds would take the company "through a lot of milestones." As a device, it should have a shorter regulatory pathway to market than drugs have. With IPOs still a distant dream for life sciences startups, and corporate buyers exercising caution, Brooks said investors have to make sure syndicate partners have staying power. "The question is how to carry this company not just for 18 months but for 36 months. You never know how heathly everyone else is. It's to look out a few years and know who's going to be out there." - Alex Lash
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Over the weekend Dow Jones VentureSource released second-quarter data for venture investing. The picture remains grim, but there are interesting numbers nonetheless. 
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