Products

Investment Characteristics

CLS believes that the most dependable and most productive creators of value in life sciences companies are clinical products. Therefore, we seek to invest in product focused early stage companies that use capital efficiently and that have a clear path to clinical development.

Products

We invest in medical device companies and drug development companies in roughly equal proportions:

With respect to medical devices, we are particularly focused on therapeutic devices, although we do consider diagnostic opportunities.

With respect to drug development companies, we are interested in both biologic and small molecule opportunities.

With respect to small molecule drug opportunities, we are interested in both new chemical entities and in new proprietary applications of already approved drugs.

We invest only in companies that are developing products that address an unmet clinical needs.

We do not invest in:  
      • Healthcare information technology or software.
      • Healthcare services.
      • Research tool companies.
      • Products that are not regulated by the FDA.
      • OTC products.
      • Generic products.

Investment Characteristics

We will generally make an initial portfolio investment only in Series A or Series B rounds.

We will consider making an initial portfolio investment in later rounds if the company is undergoing a change in strategic direction or some other form of “restart” transition.

We require board representation as a condition to our investment.

Our initial investment will generally be in the range of $1 to $5 million as part of an investment syndicate of other professional venture capital investors.

The amount of capital raised in our initial investment round must be adequate to allow the company to reach a significant value inflection point, which is often initial proof of concept human clinical trial data.

We lead or co-lead a majority of our investments, and we are happy to assist the company in building an investment syndicate.

We will generally participate in all subsequent venture capital financings by the company until it is acquired or goes public.

We will consider investment opportunities located anywhere in the United States, although we have a particular focus in the West and the Midwest.

We actively consider investment opportunities located outside of the United States, as long as the portfolio company is willing to establish a U.S. based headquarters subsequent to our investment.