OnBioVC recently released their 2009 Summary of biotechnology venture capital financings (here). All in all, OnBioVC records a total of 352 biopharma, diagnostic, devices, medical-IT, and biofuel financing totaling over $6,250 million.

Interestingly, the analysis indicates that 2009 bioscience VC financing totaled only slightly less (<5%) than the average investment totals of the previous ten years.  Given the tough economic times and biotech’s need for capital, this is particularly encouraging.  The report does however, state a shift to mid-stage investing as compared to 2008, with deals moving to series B and C investments.  Series A investments declined by about 15%.  This supports the hypothesis that VC firms tend to support existing investments during downturns, rather than start new ventures.  It would be very interesting to see the same analysis across the previous 10 years.

The report also outlines interesting investment trends including that 10% of the deals were in diagnostics (31 deals).  Although, diagnostic investing still lags behind therapeutic (181 deals) and medical devices (130 deals), this nascent interest in diagnostics is particularly encouraging and potentially demonstrates industry interests in personalized medicine approaches.  I’ve been compiling a list of interesting companies developing molecular diagnostics at BioVenturist.com (see: below or at BioVenturist – Molecular Diagnostic Companies ).  Many of these companies are extremely exciting and ones to watch in 2010 / 2011.

The report gives the breakdown of all companies and their financings, as well as further trends (For example, California lead the number of deals completed (97 deals totaling $2,011 million) with Massachusetts coming in second (51 deals totaling 980 million)).  Finally, the report gives data and insights into 2009 M&A and IPO activity.  All in all, a good read and a nice free resource.