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Novo Annual Report 2015
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novo ventures opens a new office in
boston
with the opening of the regional office in
boston
, massachusetts, novo ventures has expanded its us footprint. i over the past decade,
boston
has become a major hub of
biotech
with the presence of world-class academic institutions, major pharma and
biotech
companies
, and leading venture capital firms. this has resulted in prolific venture activities matched only by those taking place in the san francisco area. with our presence in copenhagen, san francisco, london, and now
boston
, novo ventures stands out as one the few truly cross-atlantic life science investors. the
boston
innovation ecosystem key to the emergence of
boston
as an innovation hub is the simultaneous presence of world-class research, strong
biotech
industry and substantial venture capital, which together constitutes a very productive ecosystem. the basic and clinical research performed at the universities and research hospitals in the area is key to driving the growth of the
boston
biotech
industry. for many decades, harvard, mit and several other leading academic institutions have attracted world-class research talent into the
boston
community. additionally,
boston
is home to the highest-funded private research hospitals in the us, led by massachusetts general hospitals, brigham and women?s hospital, and dana farber cancer institute. with research budgets for these institutions exceeding usd 3 billion annually, the academic community will continue to feed the talent pool that drives the innovation economy. led by novartis in 2002, large pharma and
biotech
have continued to build their presence in the
boston
area. this trend has enabled cross-fertilisation between the academic, pharma and venture communities. pfizer, novartis, gsk, amgen, merck, celgene, and takeda/millennium have all established major r&d operations in
boston
. these r&d sites range from a few hundred researchers to several thousand employees. during the past decade, we have also seen what was once small-scale start-ups mature into real large-scale
biotech
companies
? e.g. biogen, genzyme (acquired by sanofi) and vertex. these
companies
have all focused on high medical need indications and let science and medical need be the driving force for their product development. they are now all generating billions of dollars in annual revenue from novel therapeutics, and driving public market valuations in the double-digit billion dollar range. these successes help to feed more investment dollars back into the
biotech
ecosystem; they also generate an enthusiasm for
biotech
and life science and create a conducive environment for the next generations of venture-backed and small cap public
biotech
start-ups. the infusion of a significant amount of life science investment dollars into the
boston
area has fueled an explosion of
biotech
in the region. more than 60,000 people work in the life science industry in the
boston
area, and there are more than 180 life science
companies
incorporated here, many of which have been established within the last five years. venture capital firms ? including novo ? have contributed to this growth by investing nearly usd 6 billion in
boston
-based
biotech
companies
since 2010. many of these private
companies
have transitioned to the public markets, with local
biotech
companies
raising more than usd 2.6 billion in ipo proceeds since 2013. with a healthy crop of well-financed young
companies
developing new drugs, there is reason to believe that some of these will succeed in getting blockbuster products to the market. these will become the next multi-billion dollar
companies
to infuse even more activity and growth into the
boston
ecosystem. novo a/s 30 novo ventures
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