STRAPPED: ImmunoGen CEO Mitchel Sayare observes, from hard experience, that "things are not going well for companies that don't have enough cash."
The pressure is on for many biotechnology companies, from very small ones such as Macronex to those with up to a few hundred employees that nonetheless lack a product to sell. For the last several years, financing has become more and more difficult to find.
Some, like Macronex, have closed down. Other firms have streamlined, hoping to conserve their precious remaining cash until a "focused" R&D program yields the kind of results that will attract investors again. Any "surprises" during clinical testing, and a firm may be forced to go under.
A merger of two small biotechs is also a possibility, especially if one company has cash and no products anywhere near ready for the market and the other has late-stage R&D under way but little money to ...
