Valentino Stella has plans for drugs he’d like to market through his pharmaceutical company, ProQuest. He just doesn’t have the resources to pursue them.

Stella is convinced that if Kansas pumped more funds into the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp., a state-operated nonprofit group that supports fledgling firms, his company and others already in existence could form a solid foundation for biotechnology firms in the state.

“I can tell you ProQuest would be a much better company today if we had more resources through KTEC,” said Stella, a co-owner. “We could have taken a number of other technologies through the system. Now we have to make decisions on where we put our limited resources.”

He has run into frustrations with attracting venture capital money before, with two other companies in Lawrence.

KTEC will distribute $1.4 million to start-up companies this year, an amount that pales in comparison to funds available from similar programs in other states.

And gathering money on the private side can be as much or more of a challenge. ProQuest leaders have been in talks with a venture capitalist in San Francisco — a hotbed for life sciences research — to support their projects, but investors on the coasts typically want the companies they’re investing in to be nearby, not in the Midwest.

“I don’t know that the atmosphere in the state and locally is one where we can attract the sort of individual that can come in and be a mover and shaker for investment capital,” said Stella, who developed technology for the drugs at Kansas University.

Kansas legislators this session are likely to consider tax exemptions for investors choosing to put money in biotechnology.

David Frankland already is seeing improvement in the private sector for life sciences investments. He is president and CEO of KC Catalyst, a nonprofit organization funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation that aids start-up companies.

“I’d say we’re progressing,” he said. “I think we’ve done a significant job both locally and nationally, building momentum and buzz as a life science and technology center.”

But with returns on life science investments taking an average of six to 12 years to develop — about twice the average for a venture capital firm — Frankland said biotechnology could be a hard sell.

“So many people were spoiled by the dot-com era where money was way too easy to get ahold of,” he said. “There was wasted, foolish, uninformed investing. Venture capitalists got burned just like the other investors in the past few years. They’re careful.”

Frankland said KC Catalyst helped raise about $15 million in venture capital last year, three times what it raised in 2002. About a third of its clients are biotech firms.

He also cited a recent announcement by Lawrence-based Deciphera Pharmaceuticals that it had raised $15 million for its drug-producing efforts as evidence it’s possible to raise money in the Kansas City area.

Stella said successes such as those by Deciphera would help draw interest from East and West Coast investors.

“I think we’ve got a chance,” he said. “I think there are a lot of things that are happening that could make the Midwest potentially more attractive than San Francisco and Los Angeles.”