A nightcap at the Four Seasons near Boston Commons last night brought a
sighting of San Francisco biotech banker/VC Steven Burrill and his son Joel,
an undergrad at Duke University. Both Burrills were still nattily togged,
though Burrill the Elder had loosened his tie slightly in deference to the
hour. He was positive as always about the biotech IPO landscape, predicting 30
biotech IPOs this year. (By our count, there have been eight so far, not
including device makers.) Burrill just saw through Pharmasset Inc. of
Princeton, N.J., where he’s chairman, to a $45 million late April debut. He
holds 1.65 million shares, or 8% of the company.
Burrill is also trying his hand at magazine publishing. Already author of a
yearly state-of-the-industry report that, thanks to its size and weight, also
doubles as an excellent doorstop, he is bankrolling
The Journal of Life Sciences,
both print and online. It’s reminiscent of the Acumen Journal of Sciences, a
previous attempt to do a high-minded journal for ideas. (Acumen’s former
editor Jason Pontin now helms MIT’s
Technology Review magazine.)
Burrill helped launch Acumen, too, but mainly with suggestions. Dot-com
billionaire
Eric
Greenberg put up the money, part of the hundreds of millions he lost in
the crash.
Burrill’s son Joel is no less high-minded. He’s part of Duke’s
Prospective Health Care
Club, a group of students who take their club name from a new approach to
healthcare based on new disease prediction tools and pinpoint treatment for
people and communities. Joel proudly showed off the club’s first magazine, and
with a similar burst of enthusiasm, he also recommended the carne asada
burrito at his favorite San Francisco taqueria — much appreciated, but
probably not a good first step toward a new healthcare paradigm. —Alex Lash
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