Virtual companies add virtually little to overall economy

If Horace Greeley were alive today — and a venture capitalist to boot (work with me here) — he might turn to today’s life science innovators and say, “Go virtual, young man ….”
“Virtual” is all the rage. Farm out costly activities like clinical trial research and manufacturing, hire overseers to keep those activities in line, build up a contractor economy and get your company to a point (quickly and with little cash burn) where it can be sold.
But does the virtual (read: outsourcing) model make wider sense?

SARcode sees Phase III for dry eye drug

If SARcode Bioscience Inc.’s vision stays in focus, there won’t be a dry eye in the house.
Aiming to take advantage of a dearth of effective treatments on the market today, the Brisbane company closed a $44 million venture round that sees it through the first of potentially three late-stage trials for dry eye disease.
That is nearly as far as anyone else has reached with a dry eye drug over the past few years. “Nine have failed in dry eye, so there’s skepticism among investors,” said SARcode CEO Quinton Oswald.

SARcode Bioscience nabs $44M second-round funding

SARcode Bioscience Inc., a Brisbane company developing eye treatments, raised $44 million in a second round of funding led by Sofinnova Ventures.
SARcode said it plans to use proceeds of the new funding for clinical development of a treatment for dry-eye syndrome.