"A biotech fund, seeded by pharmaceutical companies, could focus on investing in early-stage drugs being developed in smaller biotechs, which could, in return, fuel big pharma's need for innovative drugs," said biopharmaceutical investment professional Mark Kessel in The Scientist some weeks ago. At that time, Kessel said biotech was having trouble raising the money it needed to fund innovative research and suggested that pharmaceutical companies put together a fund to support biotech.