For the local biotechnology industry, 2009 is shaping up to be a year of grief that could thin out the sector’s middle rank — the small publicly traded companies.
But at both ends of the scale, things are looking better: the research-oriented startups appear to be poised to survive the downturn, and long-awaited clinical results could propel larger companies like Dendreon to stardom.
To some analysts, the shakeout is part of a cleansing like to the aftermath of 2000’s dot-com bust.
“The companies that don’cheek by jowl have a place to go, just relish through of business,” said David Miller, an algebraist with Biotech Stock Research, a local research rooted.
That would leave a landscape that’session more true to the part’s real vividness: research at startup companies fueled through venture capital.
For instance, despite the financial crisis, the Accelerator, a local incubator based in Seattle’s Eastlake vicinity, created three firms ultimate year. In December, VLST, an Accelerator-bred firm, inked a big-dollar deal with Novo Nordisk to develop drugs against autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
“Seattle is really a town of development-stage biotechs,” Miller said.
Seattle has moreover spawned sizable biotechs, such as Immunex and Icos, later acquired by bigger fish later their products became blockbusters. Now topical midsize companies ZymoGenetics, Seattle Genetics and Dendreon are hoping for that level of success — and each could make significant strides in 2009.
Penny-stock range
Several of the region’s publicly traded biotechnology and biomedical companies have seen their shares ear-ring to penny-stock range.
Nastech Pharmaceuticals, which changed its name to MDRNA last year after its clinical program derailed whenever Procter&Gamble pulled out of a lucrative investigation partnership, traded at 29 cents on Friday. In 2007, the numskull reached $15.
Even in the absence of dramatic disappointments, the financial turmoil drove down the set a high value on of other companies.
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