Cash-Hungry Biotechnology Firms Attract Drug Company Investments

Growing number of alliances with pharmaceutical partners seeking access to gene technologies points to new success path for biotechs. NEW TOOLS: Drug companies need the novel technologies that are "bread and butter" to the biotech industry, says Pfizer's Peter S. Ringrose. With growing fervor, the world's largest pharmaceutical companies have been aggressively buying up a range of biotechnology company assets in the past few years, even as the stock market's interest in the younger industry h

Written byFranklin Hoke

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Growing number of alliances with pharmaceutical partners seeking access to gene technologies points to new success path for biotechs.

NEW TOOLS: Drug companies need the novel technologies that are "bread and butter" to the biotech industry, says Pfizer's Peter S. Ringrose.

With growing fervor, the world's largest pharmaceutical companies have been aggressively buying up a range of biotechnology company assets in the past few years, even as the stock market's interest in the younger industry has waned. In the process, according to pharmaceutical and biotechnology company executives and industry analysts, a new model for the stable, solvent biotechnology company may be emerging.

In the past, young biotechs aimed to grow into publicly financed, full-fledged drug companies, with research, development, manufacturing, and marketing capacities. Now, a number of companies have been forced to trim research programs and lay off workers, and a few have been swallowed whole by larger companies. Many, ...

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