After several punishing years, the window for biotechnology financing in the US appears to be reopening, though mainly for larger companies with a strong product pipeline, leaving early-stage biotechs to scrap over a tightening pool of federal and local funds. Biotech companies raked in more than $12 billion (US) in 2003, the industry's second highest annual total, but well behind the $32 million raised in the boom year of 2000.
Even more significant, analysts say, is the reappearance of a market for biotech initial public offerings (IPOs) for the first time in 18 months. "I think the nuclear winter could be over," says Ron Spangler, chief executive of Emerging Growth Equities, a biotech investment-banking boutique in King of Prussia, Pa. Investment funds have pent up pools of money to spend, but buyers remain skeptical about the market, says G. Steven Burrill, chief executive of Burrill & Co., a San Francisco ...
