There's a loud drumbeat of warnings coming from Europe over the sour state of biotech investing. Zhining Xu, an analyst at Seymour Pierce, tells the Financial Times that 2007 was a "disaster for biotechnology in the U.K." Andrew Baker, chairman of the International Biotech Trust, calls the first half of 2008 "appalling." And in FierceBioResearcher, we feature the voice of Sir Chris Evans, one of Britain's pioneering biotech entrepreneurs, talking about the "perfect storm" that has smashed into the field, threatening the amount of research work that's being done on the continent.
The viral skepticism isn't restricted to Europe. Investors are noting an increasingly tough regulatory approach to approvals at the FDA, a string of late-stage drug failures and nervousness over the lengthy amount of time it will take to get new genetic therapies on the market.
Interestingly, biotech stocks have been beaten down so far that some of the pessimists are saying that there are grounds for optimism. In the investing world, what goes down must go up. Right?
- read the article in the Financial Times
ALSO: One bullish Danish expert says that Denmark's biotech companies have matured to the point where they are ripe for acquisition by Big Pharma. Report