Das große Sterben der kleinen Biotech`s ... - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

[Big-Apple]

Biotechnologie: Nur die Starken überleben
23.01.2003

Das Telefon von James Mullen klingelt schon wieder. Der CEO von Biogen hebt ab und hört am anderen Ende der Leitung eine Stimme: „Please buy us!“ – Bitte kauft unsere Firma. So oder ähnlich geht das schon seit Monaten, und Mullens Antwort ist immer die gleiche: „Sorry, kein Interesse!“

Immer mehr kleine Biotechnologie-Unternehmen stehen mit dem Rücken zur Wand, ihnen geht das Geld aus. Weil sie keine neuen Investoren finden, sehen sie die einzige Hoffnung in der Übernahme durch einen größeren Konkurrenten. Doch die sind an weiteren Akquisition nicht interessiert, Biogen nicht und Amgen nicht und Genentech nicht. Obwohl die Kassen gut gefüllt sind, planen diese größten Biotech-Unternehmen der Welt in 2003 keine Käufe, zumindest solange sich keine außergewöhnlich gute Gelegenheit auftut.

Marina Bozilenko, Investmentbankerin mit Schwerpunkt Biotech bei der Banc of America Securities, erklärt diese Entwicklung: „Unter den kleinen Biotech-Unternehmen befinden sich vielleicht noch ein oder zwei Juwele, die Investoren vergessen haben. Eine große Gelegenheit für Fusionen und Übernahmen sehe ich allerdings nicht.“

Nur eine Handvoll Unternehmen verdient genug Geld

In der Biotechnologiebranche dürfte die Luft für einige Unternehmen dünner werden. Branchenkenner rechnen damit, dass ein Großteil der 342 börsennotierten Biotechnologieunternehmen in den USA vom Markt verschwinden wird. Nur eine Handvoll Unternehmen verdient genug Geld, um sich auf lange Sicht die teure Medikamenten-Forschung leisten zu können. Es dauert im Durchschnitt neun Jahre, bis aus einer im Labor als wirksam erkannten Substanz ein verkaufsfähiges Mittel entsteht. Dazu kommen die üblichen Risiken und Rückschläge in der Medikamentenentwicklung. Geld bringt ein Medikament erst, wenn es die Zulassung der Gesundheitsbehörde, in den USA also der FDA, erreicht hat. Vorher sind allerdings umfangreiche klinische Tests notwendig. Sollten unerwartete Nebenwirkungen bei den Patienten auftreten und das Medikament somit keine Zulassung erhalten, sind schnell dreistellige Millionenbeträge verloren.

Am schlimmsten sind also solche Unternehmen gefährdet, deren Geschäftsmodell nur auf der Entwicklung von Medikamenten basiert und die noch keine marktreifen Medikamente in der Pipeline haben. Die Entwicklung der Arzneimittel wird für diese Biotechs sowie ihre Investoren zum Pokerspiel mit hohem Einsatz. Immer weniger Risikokapitalgeber setzen sich diesem Wagnis aus. Die Insolvenzen für einige Unternehmen sind vorprogrammiert.

Der Informationsdienst Biocentury nennt bereits 61 Firmen, denen womöglich in 2003 die Pleite droht. Damit würde sich ein Schrumpfungsprozess fortsetzen, der nach den Boomjahren 1999 und 2000 eingesetzt hat – und der manches Unternehmen ausradierte. Rund 60 % der Biotech-Unternehmen, die vor zehn Jahren noch existierten, sind heute nicht mehr. Gescheitert sich sie an dem Problem der Anschlussfinanzierung nach dem Börsengang: Auf dem Parkett ist für die Firmen nichts mehr zu holen, und Risikokapitalgeber halten sich zurück. Letzteres liegt auch daran, dass der IPO-Markt so gut wie tot ist und Venture-Capital-Gesellschaften fürchten, dass ihre Unternehmen den Sprung an die Öffentlichkeit nicht schaffen. Sie blieben dann auf totem Kapital sitzen. Nach Angaben von VC-Spezialisten hat das durchschnittliche private Biotech-Unternehmen noch Cash für 10 Monate.

Branchenindex hat vergangenes Jahr 45 Prozent verloren

Dabei hatte es einmal so ausgesehen, als würde die Biotech-Branche den Zusammenbruch der New Economy besser verkraften als die Start-Ups. Doch das Vertrauen der Investoren und Risikokapitalgeber in den Sektor ist heute genauso erschüttert wie im Internetbereich. Der Branchenindex an der Nasdaq hat im Jahre 2002 45 % verloren, er ist auf das Level von 1999 zurückgefallen. Skandale, verfehlte Prognosen, Rückschläge in der klinischen Forschung, nicht tragfähige oder weniger überzeugende Geschäftsmodelle und der Sparzwang im Pharmasektor haben die Lieblingsbranche der Anleger aus den Jahren 1999 und 2000 zum Sorgenkind werden lassen. Dennis J. Purcell, Manager des Perseus-Soros BioPharmaceutical Fund, bezeichnet 2002 sogar als eines der schwierigsten Jahre, dass die Branche je gesehen hat.

Während der Sturm an den großen Konzernveteranen wie Amgen, Genentech und Biogen jedoch weitgehend vorbei zog, zittern viele kleine Unternehmen schlicht um ihre Existenz. Viele Aktien handeln zur Zeit unter 5 $, zum Teil notieren sie damit unter dem Cash-Wert, so Purcell.

Das sei umso bitterer als der Markt nur auf Gewinne schaue und nicht mehr auf die Zukunftsaussichten eines Unternehmens, meint Michael Goldberg, CEO von Emisphere Technologies. Sein Unternehmen arbeite daher unter der Annahme, dass es keine weitere Finanzierung erhalte. Emisphere Technologies hat daher im letzten Jahr 42 % seiner Angestellten entlassen müssen.

So steckt die Biotechnologiebranche in einem tiefgreifenden Strukturwandel. Optimisten gibt es dabei wohl. Sie sagen, es sei keine Frage, dass die Dunkelheit über dem Sektor nicht für alle Zeit andauern werde. Der Innovationsmotor werde wieder ins Laufen kommen und erste zukunftsweisende Medikamente werden die Branche zurück ins Blickfeld der Anleger bringen.

Ein einigermaßen sicherer Weg aus der Dunkelheit dürfte zumindest für Anleger die Positionierung auf die Big Player sein. So konnte Amgen, der weltgrößte Biotechnologiekonzern seit dem 52-Wochen-Tief Mitte letzten Jahres mehr als 60 % zulegen. Ähnlich gut sieht die Performance bei der Nummer Zwei der Branche, Genentech, aus. Seit dem Tief im Juli 2002 konnte die Aktie 55 % zulegen. Biogen hat sich von einer Flaute bei 29 $ erholt und notierte zwischenzeitlich bei 42,70 $.

Quelle: http://www.dm-euro.com/dmwwwangebot/fn/dmo/SH/0/depot/0/sfn/…

Weitere Finanzseiten: http://www.Capitalmarkt.de
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[Inzaire]

Da`s i`s j`a ma`l interessan`t. Dies`e Biotech`s, nich`t wah`r.

[Plaste]

"Der Informationsdienst Biocentury nennt bereits 61 Firmen, denen womöglich in 2003 die Pleite droht. "

Hat jemand die Liste gefunden? Wäre mal Interessant!

[Big-Apple]

Companies that seek for cures now just try to live

CAPITAL CRUNCH: The dry venture capital market has left few options for biotech firms trying to get off the ground but to cut employees or sell rights to some products

NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
Monday, Nov 04, 2002,Page 11

When the terror attacks halted air traffic last year, an exception was made for a private jet flying from Southern California to Washington. It carried sheets of human skin cells to treat people burned at the Pentagon. Now the manufacturer of that biotechnology product, Advanced Tissue Sciences, is itself in need of emergency aid. The company, based in San Diego, filed for bankruptcy protection last month and is still operating, although it has been unable to raise money. "What we ran into was the change in the investment climate," said Abe Wischnia, the senior director for investor relations at Advanced Tissue Sciences. "A year or two ago, we would have had no trouble raising additional money." The biotechnology industry is facing one of its worst financial squeezes ever. The prices of many biotechnology stocks have plummeted, and Wall Street`s vaults have snapped nearly shut, making it almost impossible for capital-hungry companies to finance themselves. As a result, many companies are now fighting for their lives. About 35 percent of publicly traded biotechnology companies have less than a year`s worth of cash left at their current spending levels, according to a recent survey by Merrill Lynch. Since the beginning of July, at least 45 biotechnology companies in the US and Europe have announced layoffs or other cutbacks, according to BioCentury, a newsletter.

Cash flow problems

* Advanced Tissue Sciences

* Alliance Pharmaceutical Cor

* Entremed

* Amgen

* Organogenesis

* Nexell Therapeutics

* The Geron Corp

* Incara

* Genaissance Pharmaceuticals

* Variagenics

* DeCode Genetics

* Avigen

* Human Genome Sciences

* Abgenix

* Cygnus

* Amylin

* Calypte Biomedical Corp

Source: taipan times

Among the companies in the most precarious positions are those whose research breakthroughs have attracted much attention in the past. Such technology often tends to be not only far-reaching, but also far out -- in terms of the time when it will start making money. These are exactly the types of businesses that risk-averse investors are now shunning. The Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp, just down the road from Advanced Tissue Sciences, was the subject of a front-page article two years ago in USA Today for its work developing a blood substitute, a chemical that could deliver oxygen to a patient`s tissues when there was no blood available for a transfusion. Today, Alliance is virtually out of money, unable to resume its clinical trials, down to 90 employees from 180 at its peak and delisted from the Nasdaq National Market. Desperate for cash, it recently borrowed US$3 million -- at an annual interest rate of 100 percent. Four years ago, the stock of Entremed soared to US$85 a share after The New York Times reported that its experimental drugs had eradicated cancer in mice by cutting off the blood supply to their tumors. Now the stock is trading at US$1.69, and the company, based in Rockville, Maryland, said in September that it had enough cash to last only through the end of the year.

Grabbing headlines

But grabbing headlines does not always translate into business success. Sales have been slow for Advanced Tissue Sciences` artificial skin, which costs up to US$600 a sheet and competes with ordinary bandages. Alliance halted a clinical trial of its blood substitute last year because some patients developed strokes, although the company says the product was not at fault. Entremed`s drugs have not shown the same astounding results in people as they did in mice. Indeed, many of the companies hit hardest have spent tens or hundreds of millions of dollars on drugs and business plans that have failed, but only now are facing the day of reckoning. The recent bear market, of course, has been hard on many industries. But few depend as much as biotechnology does on investors willing to bet huge sums on technology that may not pay off for years, if ever. "I see the biotechnology industry as always struggling, always fighting for capital," said Kevin W. Sharer, the chief executive of Amgen, the biggest company in the field and one of the relatively few that are profitable and therefore not that dependent on continually raising money from investors. In the future, he said, "it`ll be a lot of losers and not very many winners." Among the more troubled areas is one that has received much political and public attention in the last year -- stem cells and other aspects of "regenerative medicine," involving the regrowth of damaged organs. Despite the technology`s long-term promise, profits are not expected for years, and some of the pioneers are ailing. Organogenesis, of Canton, Massachusetts, a competitor of Advanced Tissue Sciences in the artificial-skin business, filed for bankruptcy protection a few weeks ago. Nexell Therapeutics, of Irvine, California, which was working largely on blood stem cells, is liquidating itself. The Geron Corp, the widely acknowledged leader in human embryonic stem cells, laid off 43 people, or 30 percent of its work force, in June. "Stem cells has been a hot area with regard to the press, but it has not been a hot area with regard to investors," said Clayton I. Duncan, the chief executive of Incara Pharmaceuticals, a company based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., that worked on using liver stem cells to re-grow diseased livers. Incara, which had two drugs fail in clinical trials, ran out of cash at the end of September but has continued to operate. Two weeks ago, to save itself, Incara sold its liver stem cell business to concentrate on more traditional drugs.

Bioinformatics woes

Another sector that has suffered is bioinformatics, which uses computers to analyze masses of genetic data. Several young companies have gone out of business or been acquired for a pittance after sales did not meet expectations. Companies pursuing another futuristic field -- tailoring medicines to patients by testing their genes -- have also fallen on hard times. Shares of Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, of New Haven, Connecticut; Variagenics, of Cambridge, Mass.; and Interleukin Genetics, of Waltham, Mass., are all selling at around US$1; Interleukin has said that its existing cash will last only until January. The biotechnology industry periodically goes through money droughts, but some say this one is the worst. "This is the first time we`ve had a bear market on top of a tough environment for biotech," said Jim Scopa, co-head of health care investment banking at Thomas Weisel Partners in San Francisco. Many companies, however, have withstood the famine because they raised huge sums in 2000, when investors were in a frenzy about the deciphering of the human genome. The industry as a whole raised more than US$30 billion that year, several times as much as in any previous year. "The last stop at the gas station was two years ago, and people filled up their tanks very well," said Stelios Papadopoulos, a health care investment banker and vice chairman of S.G. Cowen Securities. Still, the feeling of wealth led some companies to spend profligately. Like Internet start-ups, some biotechnology companies decided to spend heavily to build their business while ignoring the need for profits.

Money burn

So now, even companies in no immediate danger of running out of money are slowing their "burn rate" -- the speed at which they go through cash -- in case the market downturn lasts for years. DeCode Genetics, a company searching disease-causing genes in the relatively homogeneous population of Iceland, its home, cut 200 employees in September -- on the same day that it announced a collaboration with Merck & Co. worth up to US$90 million. In Alameda, California, Avigen, which is developing gene therapy to treat hemophilia, cut 28 percent of its work force last month so that its cash will last for four or five years instead of three, said John Monahan, the chief executive. Even Human Genome Sciences, with US$1.5 billion in cash, and Abgenix, with US$464 million, are facing investor pressure to preserve cash. With the public markets virtually closed, public companies can still raise money by selling stock privately to investors, though often on onerous terms. And venture capitalists make their returns when those start-ups go public. With the market for public offerings effectively closed, venture capitalists are starting to cut back as well on the amounts of money they offer to companies. "We`re starting to see values fall pretty aggressively," said Brian G. Atwood, a managing director at Versant Ventures in Menlo Park, Calif. He added, "Almost every private company I know is considering doing a layoff." In some cases, venture capitalists must now put additional money into companies in their portfolios that would normally have gone public by now, leaving less for new companies. And with the valuations of publicly traded companies so low, some venture firms are tempted to invest in public companies rather than private ones.

Quelle: http://taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2002/11/04/178309

[puhvogel]

So den grossen Durchblick in der Branche hat der Kay Rathschlag nicht.

[puhvogel]

Perlegen Sciences Raises $30 Million In Second Financing Round
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jan. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Perlegen Sciences, Inc. today announced the closing of a $30 million private placement of its Series C Preferred Stock with new and existing investors. The financing was led by Maverick Capital, and new investors included Unilever Technology Ventures, Eli Lilly & Co., Biofrontier Partners and CSK Venture Capital. Previous investors also participating in the financing included Vulcan Ventures, BioMedical Sciences Investment Fund, CMEA Ventures, SB Life Science Ventures, Dr. Alejandro Zaffaroni and others
__________________________________

Amarin Corporation (AMRN) Announces $21.2 Million Private Placement Of Ordinary Shares


- Company Restructures Elan Obligations -

LONDON, Jan. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Amarin Corporation plc (Nasdaq: AMRN) announced today that it has completed a private placement of 6,093,727 ordinary shares to a group of accredited investors and management, raising gross proceeds to the Company of $21.2 million.

The purchase price of $3.4785 per share was based on the average closing price of Amarin`s American Depositary Shares for the five trading days ended 14th January 2003. Amarin intends to file a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission within 90 days covering the ordinary shares sold to investors. Furthermore, as a result of the financing transaction, share ownership in Amarin by certain affiliates of Elan Corporation plc (NYSE: ELN) has been reduced from 39.3% to approximately 25.9% on a fully diluted basis.

[puhvogel]

AtheroGenics (AGIX) Prices Public Offering Of 7.2 Million Shares Of Common Stock For $45 Million Total; AGIX Stock Is Up +16.44% On Wednesday At Market Close

ATLANTA, Jan. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AtheroGenics, Inc. (Nasdaq: AGIX), a pharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases, today announced that it has priced its public offering of 7,200,000 shares of its common stock at $6.25 per share. The company offered all of the 7,200,000 shares. In the offering, Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated acted as sole book-running manager, Lehman Brothers Inc. acted as co-lead manager, and Lazard Freres & Co. LLC and Adams, Harkness & Hill, Inc. acted as co-managers. The underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,080,000 additional shares of common stock from the company solely to cover over-allotments, if any.

[puhvogel]

World Heart Corporation (WHRTF) Completes $13,000,000 Financing

OTTAWA, ON, Jan. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - (TSX: WHT, OTCBB: WHRTF) - World Heart Corporation today announced the completion of a CDN$10 million debt financing transaction. Today`s closing announcement is incremental to the previously disclosed CDN$3 million private equity placement for a total transaction value of CDN$13 million.

[puhvogel]

Renovo Ltd. Oversubscription Expands Second Round Financing To £23 Million (US$37.5 Million)

Renovo Ltd announced today that Temasek Holdings (Pte) Ltd. and BioVeda Capital (Pte) Ltd., both of Singapore, have invested £2 million (US$3.2 million) in the company as part of an over-subscription to its second round financing. The amount raised in the second round now totals £23 million (US$37.5 million). In December 2002, Renovo achieved its objective in raising £21 million (US$33 million) from a syndicate of investors, led by HealthCap, and including Care Capital LLC, as well as existing investors: Atlas Venture and JPMorgan Partners. This oversubscription has allowed the company to broaden its investor base to Asia and will provide additional funds for the clinical trials of Renovo’s lead drugs that prevent scars and accelerate healing following any kind of surgery or trauma to the skin and to pursue additional product development through enhancement of its already well established discovery platform.

[puhvogel]

The Genetics Company Gets $3.7M To Cap Round Two With $5.2M

The Genetics Company, a drug discovery and development company with programs in the areas of cancer and neurodegenerative disease, said that it has secured CHF 5 million ($3.7 million ) in additional second round funds, capping the round with CHF 7 million.