Bangalore, 26 December 2014: Well known life sciences industry analyst, G Steven Burrill, Chairman of Burrill, predicts that about 100 IPOs( initial public offerings) by bioscience companies will happen in 2015 globally to raise another record $10 billion during the year.

Releasing his annual predictions, Mr Burrill, said 2014 was a record year for life science companies as 126 IPOs raised at least $10.4 billion. Of this, 101 IPOs were in the US raising $ 6.8 billion and the rest in other global markets.
According to Mr Burrill, the global financial markets are witnessing a major structural change and the share of global markets for fund raising by life sciences companies will reflect this. He predicts that the finances raised by non-US markets will more than double to account for about 40 per cent of the overall IPO financing in 2015.

"There will be greater activity on foreign stock exchanges as strengthening economies, rising markets and companies in Europe and Asia raise money at home," Mr Burrill reasoned.

Apart from record IPOs, overall too the global financings for the life sciences industry in 2014 was very good. The industry got funds totaling $81.9 billion in the first 11 months of 2014. During the same period in 2013, this figure was just $79.5 billion.

Another key segment, the venture capital investment too fared very well in the life sciences sector. Global venture capital investments in the industry touched $15.3 in 2014 upto November compared to only $11.5 billion during the same time in 2013.
"Venture investors are flush with new funds and are recycling capital thanks to the IPO and mergers & acquisition activities of recent years. We expect 2015 to be a banner year for venture investment, but will also see a continued migration from seed and early stage biotech that may be more than 10 years away from revenue," Mr Burrill said.

Mr Burrill predicted that more capital flows will reach new types of healthcare companies that leverage digital technologies to improve efficiency in the healthcare systems. This could lead to new types of patient monitoring systems and early interventions, leverage data available to improve health and transform healthcare access and delivery models.