The next step, typically, would have been to do a second-stage test (of three required phases) on a few hundred patients to confirm early results, proceeding later with costlier and bigger final-stage trials in thousands of people.
However, if the complaint is that companies are starved of cash at an early stage, then the same cannot be said of later-stage companies, according to Mr. O'Leary.
But valuations in North America have risen for both early-stage and later-stage investments (see chart), making it much harder to make great returns.
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This might save time and money for firms which would be affected by a dodgy patent, allowing them to argue things out at an early stage rather than later on in a costly courtroom.
But, he said, there was a funding gap between early funding, which was relatively easy to get, and later-stage growth funding which was very much harder.
While venture returns are at their lowest since 1998 and VCs are proceeding with extra caution, NEA is sticking to its early-stage focus despite the perception that more developed later-stage deals are less risky.
Amongst the documents are items relating to early stage productions of Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine, which were both later turned into films, the former starring Julie Walters and Michael Caine and the latter Pauline Collins and Tom Conti.
Juniper also has a JUNOS innovation fund that invests alongside venture capitalists to place bets on early stage or growth stage companies that might offer innovations Juniper can later deploy in its networking gear.
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This more collaborative model is being applied to the high-risk innovative early stages of drug discovery, with companies taking on the highly expensive later stage development.
One fund, Accel-IDG Growth Fund III, will be used to back early stage deals while the other fund, Accel-IDG Capital Fund II, will focus on later stage deals.
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Finally, in addition to data, investors are funding more unproven, early-stage startups with a smaller amount of upfront capital, later doubling down on those that achieve traction.
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