Eyeworld

EW CATARACT September 2011 43 have one at all. It could be a virtual company with you as the ophthal- mologist and maybe an accountant and another researcher, he said. Pro- fessional investors help increase the value of your holdings because they increase the value of the company with the contacts they have. There are other ways to raise capital as well. Aside from the ven- ture capital model, many are looking at doing things more creatively, Dr. Ono said, like getting capital from angels or government funding, which prevents the dilution of your equity. He offered an example of a re- cent case where a company never took in any venture capital money and raised about 20 million dollars through four rounds of angel invest- ment and government funding and sold the company to a major phar- maceutical company for over 500 million dollars, which allowed the original owners to retain 25% of the company. They would never have held 25% if they had gone the ven- ture capital way. That's why it's important, unless the inventor also has business savvy, to go with a business person who may already have played with these options and opportunities besides just going the venture capital route, Dr. Ono reiterated. Investment milestones The first major inflection point in investment for a device is how much capital it will take for the inventor or founder of the company to get to first-in-man studies, to prove in human efficacy trials not only that it's safe, but also that there's some efficacy, Dr. Ono said. In the thera- peutic area, it's what would be called proof-of-principle trials. Timelines could be shorter for devices, depending on where it is, 510(k) or PMA or those designa- tions, but it could also take as long as a drug, Dr. Ono said. Approvals for drugs could take anywhere from 7 to 10 years or longer from initial discovery, whether it's NCE or bio- logical, and the cost is anywhere from one half to a billion dollars, he said. Obstacles will come up, and an entrepreneur needs to have a team that is very resourceful and able to get up when you're kicked and down, Dr. Ono said. He continued, "You don't give up, you just have to keep fighting and you can't be one that takes no for an answer. You're going to hear 'no' a lot, but you've got to stick to it. That separates the successful en- trepreneurs from the ones who want to be." EW Editors' note: Dr. Ono is managing di- rector, Life Sciences, VIMAC Ventures. Contact information Ono: dono@vimac.com

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