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18 | HARTFORD BUSINESS JOURNAL • OCTOBER 2, 2017 Boehringer Ingelheim, as well as the colleges pursuing research like Yale University and the University of Connecticut. It was talent from these companies and institutions that helped spur many of the early biotech startups in the state during the boom times of the late '90s, when venture capital funding was plentiful in the sector. However, the funding dried up in the early 2000s, as investors became risk averse. "It's taken awhile to get out of that, but now Connecticut is just flourishing," Froshauer said. Part of the fuel for that growth, according to Froshauer, is the increased focus at Yale and at UConn on educating researchers on how to bring their discoveries to market and the state's billion- dollar Bioscience CT investment. "We have a new buzz of innovation and of commercialization," she said. In addition, the state has stepped up its game in 2013 through the creation of the Connecticut Bioscience Innovation Fund, a 10-year, $20-million commitment to support a wide variety of commercially viable bioscience projects. Another big change in the state's bioscience industry has been a shift at the big pharmas away from doing everything in-house to subbing out the research to smaller companies. "They can get these ideas and early R&D from collaborations and investments," Froshauer said. She pointed out that while Pfizer's presence in the state is smaller today than it was 25 years ago, the company still has a presence in Groton focused on "taking the clinical drugs that need polishing and shining in order to get launched." Meanwhile, startups capitalizing on research from academia are flourishing, including Arvinas, which was founded on research done at Yale University. The company announced a Series B financing round of $41.6 million in 2015. Another Yale spinoff, Biohaven Pharmaceuticals, had a $168 million IPO in March 2017. "What you see happening is the investors who have long been gone are coming through more and more and more," Froshauer said. Changes in Connecticut's Hospital Sector Fiscal 2010 Fiscal 2015 Net Patient Revenues $8.7B $9.9B 13.8% Average Operating Margin 2.44% 3.90% 59.8% Emergency Room Visits 1.7M 1.7M 0% Full-time Equivalent Employees 52,141 51,931 -0.4% Uncompensated Care $647,343,519 $643,651,169 -0.6% Source: CT Office of Health Care Access Yale scientist Craig M. Crews founded a growing Connecticut bioscience company called Arvinas. Linda Shanley, vice president and chief information officer at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, has helped transform the hospital's medical records systems over the years.