The Biotech Religion Invaded by Investor Skeptics

Executive Summary

It has taken months for biotech's March madness to calm back into something like sanity, doing so in the context of Nasdaq's overall downward spiral. But if there was one lesson to the volume of recent financings it was this: the big can get bigger; the small-and the early-stage-should be just a teeny bit worried. The large and highly valued companies, particularly those with drugs on or about to be on the market can raise money easily. But new discovery-stage offerings have had trouble--like Rigel's. IPO buyers have instead opted for the apparently lower-risk, faster-return businesses of nearer-term companies like drug-delivery and service firms.