(Source: North County Times)
By Bradley J. Fikes, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.
Aug. 11--CARMEL VALLEY -- Domain Associates LLC has raised a $500 million venture capital fund to be invested exclusively in life science companies.
It is the eighth fund raised by Domain Associates, which has invested in numerous local companies.
The venture capital firm said it will invest in early-stage companies in the drug and medical device sectors.
Domain is based in Princeton, N.J., with West Coast headquarters in Carmel Valley. The company moved its West Coast headquarters to Carmel Valley from Orange County in 2006 to be closer to San Diego County's large life sciences industry.
Nicole Vitullo, a Domain partner, said the firm has not yet identified specific investments to make with the new fund.
"It's clearly safe to say, given our presence in San Diego County, and (given) that we've had a historic practice of investing in San Diego, that we expect investment activity to continue in the San Diego area," Vitullo said.
This year to date, Domain has taken part in five investment rounds in companies in San Diego County, according to SoCalTech.com, which tracks venture capital investments. The total investments for Domain and the other investors totaled $137 million.
The firm's local investments include Cadence Pharmaceuticals; Novalar Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Ocera Therapeutics Inc.; Orexigen Therapeutics Inc.; Santarus Inc.; Sequel Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Volcano Corp., all of Carmel Valley. Others include GenVault Corp.; Helixis Inc. and SkinMedica Inc. of Carlsbad; and San Diego-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Some of Domain's local portfolio companies have since been sold for large sums of money. In 2007, Carmel Valley-based NovaCardia, funded by Domain and other firms, was purchased by pharmaceutical giant Merck for $350 million in cash.
Since its founding in 1985, Domain has raised funds with assets valued at more than $2.7 billion.
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