Up until last week, Renovo was the poster child for success in the UK's biotech industry. Then after one of its therapies failed a drug trial for one indication, investors bailed and cut its stock price in half. And the analysts say the cutthroat response has raised fears about the sudden swings in stock price that can afflict any emerging drug developer.
"We need a success," Cannacord's Karl Keegan told the Financial Times. "I was hoping that Renovo would be a straightforward success story that would attract the more general small-cap investor but those have now been turned away."
The volatility in the market has opened the doors to M&A talks at a growing number of biotech companies. The FT notes that Ardana has announced plans to sell or merge and CeNeS Pharmaceuticals has confirmed that it is in takeover talks.
- read the story in the Financial Times
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