Early-Stage Biotech Investing Lags Behind Nation

The Puget Sound region is home to some of the nation's preeminent health care research institutions -- the University of Washington, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Institute for Systems Biology. Yet the region lags other centers of biotechnology research in one crucial area -- the availability of early-stage venture capital financing. Statistics from VentureOne, an online Dow Jones affiliate that tracks the private equity market, shows the greater Seattle area finished dead last among six of the regions best known for the development of early-stage biotech startups in 2004. (See data box.)