Bioscience startups struggle to find financing

When Clovis Oncology founder Pat Mahaffy went looking for money to start his latest company a little more than two years ago, he had no trouble finding $146 million.

That’s because Mahaffy is a top biotech star in the region, previously starting Pharmion Corp. in Boulder in 2000 and selling it to Celgene Corp. in 2008 for $2.9 billion, among other companies. Clovis focuses on anti-cancer drugs.

It is “serial entrepreneurs” like Mahaffy who draw biotech money to the Boulder Valley, said Kyle Lefkoff, partner at Boulder Ventures, a venture capital firm that manages more than $300 million in five separate funds.…