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?

Bay Area transplant Sorbent Therapeutics closes $53M Series B financing

Sorbent Therapeutics Inc. closed a $53 million Series B financing round led by new investor Novartis Venture Funds.
A Bay Area transplant from Chicago, the three-employee Sunnyvale company will use the money to complete a mid-stage program for its lead congestive heart failure drug and slowly add a few employees, CEO Detlef Albrecht said.