Word: genentech
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AVASTIN Avastin could become the first of a new class of cancer drugs called angiogenesis inhibitors, which tackle tumors by thwarting their ability to create blood vessels. Because Genentech has requested fast-track consideration from the FDA, the agency should decide by early next year whether to approve Avastin for treating colorectal cancer...
James Mullen and the biotechnology industry arrived on the scene together by chance in 1980. That year he landed his first job out of college, as a chemical engineer for what is now the U.K.-based pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline; at about the same time in San Francisco, Genentech, the pioneering biotech firm, sold its first shares to the public. Now Mullen, 44, and the biotech industry are coming of age together - only this time it's no accident. As the ceo of Biogen in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Mullen is helping force the issue with his proposal last month to merge...
...even if his deal goes through (Genentech is seen as a competing suitor for IDEC) and even if he manages to instill a new level of management intensity in the industry, biotech will remain a dicey game. Only one drug in 5,000 screened makes it to market, and even seasoned health-care investors are reluctant to handicap the process. "We'll take the risk that a company fails to execute its plan once it has a drug approval," says Stuart Weisbrod, chief investment officer of Merlin Biomed, a health-care hedge fund. "What we don't want...
...again. Since the stock market started to find its footing last July, biotech shares have risen 57%. Another bubble? Not necessarily. Many of the companies have marched steadily closer to bringing products to market. MedImmune's inhalable flu preventive FluMist was approved two weeks ago. In May, Genentech's colon-cancer drug Avastin stunned scientists with its effectiveness in trials and is widely expected to be approved soon. Dozens of other products are in the works. "We're starting to see the fruits of biotech research," says Kenneth Carter, CEO of Avalon Pharmaceuticals, which is working on three cancer drugs...
...industry prone to speculative excess. Investors still shouldn't touch these stocks outside a mutual fund or without diversifying across at least five companies. Given the sharp run-up this year, Weisbrod's hedge fund has cut its biotech holdings a third, and six top executives at Genentech recently sold $36 million of the stock. The relatively stodgy feel of the Biogen-IDEC deal has still other growth investors running for the hills. It's all part of growing up--and part of Mullen's plan. --With reporting by Eric Roston/Washington and Unmesh Kher and Barbara Kiviat/New York