Most Promising Biotech Companies, Fierce 15 2007

Great promise in biotechnology is a fragile thing. Exploring new ways to attack disease can trigger a chain of unexpected reactions in a trial or in the marketing phase. But this is an industry led by people willing to take on the odds involved in creating new companies. That's one reason why we like the Fierce 15 so much. Read through the following short profiles of our selection of up-and-coming biotech companies and you get a quick synopsis of some of the brightest thinking in the industry. There are innovative drug platforms laden with the promise of a multibillion-dollar payload of new therapies as well as smart, aggressive development plans. And there's also a tremendous amount of positioning; for upcoming partnerships, IPOs, perhaps an acquisition or two--or three. In this day, good science can attract some powerfully well-financed interests.

These companies are all about the risks and potential rewards that lie in wait for any biotech company. The odds imply that not everyone on the Fierce 15 will ultimately 'make' it. Inside every great new therapy lies a possible safety risk or planning blunder. Practically every day we see new examples of the harsh punishment investors mete out to drug discoverers who make a fatal misstep. Some of these companies, though, may well go on to the blockbuster futures that they have mapped for themselves. Several are definitely setting the pace for new approaches to more efficient discovery work. All deserve close attention as they push ahead, breaking new ground in an industry that depends on a steady stream of innovations to keep advancing the promise of medical breakthroughs made possible through new therapies.

And the 2007 winners of the biotechnology Fierce 15 are...