Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal by Katharine Grayson, Staff reporter
Venture capital firms that back high-flying tech companies like Instagram, which was sold to Facebook Inc. for $1 billion earlier this year, are certainly making plenty of money. But VCs that invest in medical-technology and biotech firms also are getting plenty of bang for their buck, according a study released by Boston-based law firm WilmerHale.
The report noted that the two largest exits of VC-backed companies last year went to life-sciences companies. The largest of those was for Plexxikon Inc., a pharmaceuticals business sold to Daiichi Sankyo for $805 million, plus milestone payments worth up to $130 million.