Also see: All Wet Over Biotech
"Investing dropoff hurting biotechs; Dwindling cash puts jobs at risk" by Scott Kirsner, Globe Correspondent | May 9, 2009
Three years after Altus Pharmaceuticals Inc. went public and raised $105 million in a single day, the Cambridge biotechnology company is running out of money, and its stock, which once traded for more than $25 a share, closed at 40 cents yesterday.
With the economy lagging, investors have become wary of the risks associated with innovative but small drugmakers like Altus, which can spend a decade or more working on experimental treatments that often don't make it to market. That's left some biotechs starving for cash.
Wait until you see where they get it from!!!
In an effort to survive, Altus in January shed 75 percent of its workforce - 107 employees - and narrowed its focus to a single drug, an injectable human growth hormone....
Translation: They are MAKING STEROIDS!!!
And this guy gets in trouble and devoured by the self-serving, agenda-pushing MSM?
The dropoff in biotech investing could hit Massachusetts particularly hard. Governor Deval Patrick, who championed a $1 billion life sciences initiative approved by the Legislature last year, has made the industry a key part of his economic development plans. By most rankings, the state's cluster of biotechnology companies is second in size only to the San Diego area.
Except it is going to cost you more than that, Bay-state taxpayers.
See: Biotech Giveaway Was Borrowed Money and related links within.
"Biotech is the antithesis of what the global market is looking for," said Steve Holtzman, chief executive of Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc., another Cambridge biotech. "The market is looking for safe, secure, liquid assets."
Holtzman knows firsthand how fickle investors are these days - Infinity's stock recently lost almost one-third of its value after it abruptly halted a test of a key cancer drug it was working on when researchers found a higher-than-expected death rate among patients.
How many times do I have to type poison pills, etc, etc, readers?
A recent report from the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council found the number of biotechs in the state increased to about 400 over the past seven years, and the number of employees increased from 30,000 to 40,000.
Oooooh, ten thousand jobs added in seven years for companies that go belly-up and never profit. Meanwhile, the state shed twice that in March alone.
Did YOU EVER GET TOOK, taxpayers!!!
But the report also warned that half of the state's publicly traded biotechs are in danger of running out of cash before the end of the year, and that one-third to one-half will probably be forced to raise more money in 2009 so they can continue to operate.
Translation: HALF of them will SHUT DOWN by the end of the year!!!!
"We were in a very permissive financial environment with cheap money and easy credit, and we're now in a very stringent financial environment that makes biotech companies extremely difficult to finance," said Rich Aldrich, a Boston biotech investor who was involved with one of the industry's biggest recent scores - the IPO and eventual sale in 2008 of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc., based in Cambridge, to GlaxoSmithKline plc, headquartered in the United Kingdom, for $720 million.
Gee, that's an odd thing to say: Biotech's Business Agent
But lately, the venture capitalists who often bankroll private companies have been holding on to their money.
Where did they get that?
Investments in New England biotechs during the first quarter of 2009 were down about $92 million from the same period last year, from $241 million to $149 million, according to Thomson Reuters. One reason is that some of Boston's biggest biotech venture capital firms have been having their own financing problems. For instance, Waltham-based Atlas Venture earlier this year collected a smaller pool of money than it had hoped for, and Oxford BioScience Partners of Boston recently suspended efforts to raise a new investment fund because of a dearth of investors. Oxford managing partner Jonathan Fleming said it's an "absolutely horrible" time for venture capitalists to raise money from pension funds, wealthy individuals, and university endowments.
Oooooooh, THAT is why your 401k has been HALVED, America!
Not some arbitrary stock market valuatioon, but IT HAS BEEN TOSSED AWAY by the MILLIONS on MONEY-LOSING, DEATH-DEVISING DRUG COMPANIES under the name BIOTECH! Keep reading!!
Also, the large pharmaceutical companies that fund smaller biotech firms, buy them outright, or collaborate on sales and marketing are consumed by a wave of consolidation. For instance, Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. are planning to merge, as are Pfizer Inc. and Wyeth.
Oh, their CUSTOMERS ARE the DEATH-DEVISING DRUG COMPANIES!!!!
Big drug companies are "our customers," said Michael Gilman, chief executive of Stromedix Inc., a Cambridge biotech developing drugs to combat organ failure. "And to the extent that there are fewer customers, that's going to make things hard."
Yeah, we have CORPORATE CONSOLIDATION and CENTRALIZATION of MULTI-NATIONALS again! Can you say GLOBALISTS, reader?
Also see: The Therapeutic Rip-Off
Because of its volatile nature, the biotech industry has traditionally been roiled by booms and busts.
That's what looting operations are!!
"In 1999 and 2000, you had the genomics bubble, when huge amounts of money were going into biotech," said Gilman. "The fundamentals of the business were no different then, but today, no one wants to put in a nickel. People were just jazzed about it then, and they're pessimistic about it now."
About the only good news biotech executives can point to are two governmental funding initiatives that could benefit Massachusetts over the long term.
TAXPAYERS!!!!?????? Are you NOT FURIOUS like ME?!!!!!
As part of this year's economic stimulus package, the federal government will increase funding to the National Institutes of Health by $10 billion....
I knew I hated that damn thing!
In addition, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center - which is charged with overseeing the state's life sciences initiative - has doled out about $42 million to research facilities, scientists, and private companies. Late last month, it announced a new batch of loans to seven early-stage companies, totaling $3.4 million.
Yup, ANOTHER WASTEFUL BUREACRACY PASSING OUT TAXPAYER LOOT!!!!
They AREN'T DOLING ANYTHING OUT to US!!!!
And even in stressful economic times, some entrepreneurs and investors hope to find bargains amidst the products cast off by companies trying to stay afloat.
There is your agenda-pushing business press at work.
When Altus was in the midst of its layoffs earlier this year, it essentially abandoned an experimental drug called Trizytek, intended to treat enzyme deficiencies that often plague people with cystic fibrosis or chronic pancreatitis. A new Cambridge startup founded by Alex Margolin, formerly chief scientific officer at Altus, acquired Trizytek without making any up-front cash payments. That company, Alnara Pharmaceuticals Inc., had earlier raised $20 million from investors, and hired several people who lost their jobs at Altus.
Somehow, some people can find money, huh? I wonder where that mone... oh, yeah, that $$$ came from YOUR PENSION and is the reason TUITION for YOUR KID went up!!!
Margolin estimated Altus had invested about $150 million in the drug, which he anticipates will win FDA approval. "The ending hasn't been written yet," he said. "But we hope it will be a Hollywood ending."
Oh, it is SO INTERESTING he should choose THOSE WORDS because they are another group of vampires sucking about a billion out of our tax coffers.
Related: Hollywood S***s on Massachusetts
Tell me again my state government isn't working for Jewish interests! It's Massachusetts. We were one of the few test labs. All this taxpayer money we are shoveling away invariably goes to Jewish interests.
