Jim Blair’s Early Days with Amgen to New ‘Domain’

It’s hard to imagine there was a time when stalwart biotech giant Amgen Inc. was just a small start-up begging for investments. But veteran life sciences venture capitalist Jim Blair doesn’t have to imagine; he was there.

In 1981, when Amgen raised its first significant funding round of $19 million – “by today’s standards, that’s like $75 million out of the gate” – Blair was working for N.M. Rothschild & Sons, a diversified venture firm that had added a biotech-focused fund only the year before. And that first year, “we only looked at 10 deals, and did four or five,” Blair said.

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