Unlike statistics, faces and names have stories that can bring us to tears, that make us want to shout at the unfairness of life, that inspire us to reach beyond ourselves to make the world a little bit better for someone else. My niece Jaymi is one of those names.

She was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s when she was 15. After a cocktail of chemo and radiation, full-body radiation and an unsuccessful bone marrow transplant, her doctors basically told her to enjoy what little life she had left. She took them at their word. She went to college. She married her high school sweetheart. And, against all odds, she gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl (pictured here with Jaymi).

At 23, Jaymi is a senior in college, majoring in technical writing and communications. Next year, she plans to start her MBA. Outside of school, she enjoys every minute she has with her 2-year-old daughter and her husband, who also is a college student. But her life is shadowed by the cancer that continues to spread throughout her body.

Jaymi doesn’t need hope. She sees that every time she looks in her daughter’s eyes. What Jaymi needs is a cure. But she needs one that is affordable.

Because she’s a married college student with cancer, Jaymi doesn’t have private insurance. And although she’s eligible for disability and Medicaid, she’s still waiting for the forms to enroll in the government programs. She’s also been warned by Medicare staff that pursuing full-on cancer treatment may not be feasible in light of budget cuts.

Years before Jaymi was born, scientists dreamed of finding a cure for cancer. Those dreams are coming true. But for people like Jaymi, the cure is still just a dream they can’t afford.

Overall, biotech companies raised a total of $13.3 billion in the first half of 2011, up a whopping 64 percent over the $8.1 billion raised in the first half of 2010, according to data from BioWorld Insight and BioWorld Snapshots.

That breaks down into three categories: $2.1 billion raised by private biotechs, $4.6 billion raised in initial and follow-on public offerings, and $6.6 billion from alternative financings of public companies (i.e. registered directs, PIPEs, loans, ATMs, etc.) The latter two categories about doubled over the first half of 2010, while the private company money fell slightly.

You can read details on the public company data in Monday’s BioWorld Today and the full report in Monday’s BioWorld Insight. But here are a few key takeaways:

• The big money in follow-ons is going to pre-commercial biotechs. You’ve got Nektar Therapeutics Inc. raising $234.5 million, Exelixis Inc. raising $189.75 million and Seattle Genetics Inc. raising $178.25 million, to name a few. As the biotech industry matures and more companies get a stock boost off late-stage clinical milestones, expect to see more padding of the coffers to fund product launches.
• PIPEs and registered directs are still important, but the new fundraising mechanism of choice is the wall-cross follow-on offering, in which companies market a deal privately for a few days and then sell the rest publicly.
• The IPO window is about as open as Chik-fil-A on Sundays. But clearly not everyone has given up hope ‑ Clovis Oncology Inc. just filed, and there are rumors that some other big filings are in the works. [UPDATE: Not just a rumor anymore. Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc. filed for $172.5M IPO]
• Private biotech funding has that “cautious optimism” feel, and VCs report increasing interest in innovation. There’s a lot of business model experimentation going on, especially around product development companies. More on that coming soon in BioWorld Insight!