Who really finances biotech?

The faces behind biotech investment aren’t what you might expect. While it’s easy to imagine that startup capital comes largely from deep-pocketed Wall Street types, many millions backing biotech actually come from folks who aren’t even remotely linked to bio, tech, or finance.

About 15,000 Colorado police officers and firefighters, for instance, invested in Alnylam — or at least their pension fund managers did, STAT’s Kate Sheridan writes. And the retirement benefits of some 16,000 screenwriters helped fuel the growth of companies like Sage Therapeutics and Editas Medicine.

“Venture capitalists know that pension funds are their major investors,” a business professor studying VC trends told STAT. “The question is, do pension fund stakeholders know they’re so important for venture capital?”