Canadian biotechs face the valley of death

Kevin Giese, chief executive of BioMS Medical, says that the economic crisis is clearly taking its toll on biotech companies in Canada.

"A lot of them are in desperate straits," he tells the National Post. As companies consolidate, he said, focus shifts internally. "Strategy is often put on the back-burner. It's harder to get their attention."

Much like their biotech cousins to the south, Canadian developers are facing a cash squeeze at a time many only have a few months of operating capital in the bank. The big hope, it seems, is that one of the newly expanded pharma companies roaming the planet will come in and buy them out.

"We got a lot of stuff they need...if they don't die from lack of funding and running out of money," says Tim McCunn, a corporate lawyer at Borden Ladern Gervais in Ottawa.

- check out the report in the National Post

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