Ebb & Flow

Nutraceuticals and OTC products are two areas where only a handful of VCs have historically played. But they may have a growing appeal as drugs become more expensive to develop and harder to reimburse. Indeed, nutraceuticals generally represent the polar opposite situation: they often require little or no clinical proof of efficacy, while consumers happily pay for them out of pocket.

LSP BioVentures, a $100 million fund launched in June and bankrolled by the agbio giant Syngenta, last week led the $14.5 million first closing of a series B financing in Efficas, a U.S. medical foods business. Existing investors Burrill & Co., Great Spirit Ventures, Bay Area Equity (JP Morgan) and Prolog Capital were joined by new investor Unilever Technology Ventures...