Opening the savings spigot in France
As in other EU countries, France's biotech industry has suffered from insufficient funding. A big part of the problem has been the lack of participation of large institutional investors, like U.S. pension funds. A recent decision to invest E6 billion ($7.2 billion) in innovative companies by 2007 by France's closest equivalent to such funds may change that.
In a letter to the French minister of economy and finance, Nicolas Sarkozy, French savings funds Federation Francaise des Societes d'Assurance (FFSA) and the Groupement des Entreprise Mutuelles d'Assurances (GEMA) committed to invest the money in small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) with high growth potential through participation in specialized private equity funds or direct investments in private equity...