Dust off that microscope – these days, it is once again good to be a biotech start-up. The world’s pharmaceutical giants are aflutter over “biologics” – protein compounds used to make drugs that are difficult to copy into generic versions. Facing the biggest wave of patent expirations in history, drugmakers are trying to break their blockbuster drug addictions and defend their sales against generic substitutes.

That’s where biotech start-ups and their venture capital backers can lend a high-priced hand. Funds, noting big pharma’s healthy appetite, are putting money to work fast. The average quarterly level of biotech venture investing jumped to nearly $1.5bn in the first half of this year from an average of $1.1bn in 2005 and 2006, according to VentureOne.