By Randall Osborne Editor Genomics is the buzzword these days for big-money biotechnology investors, but the industry-wide boom has provided "breathing room" for just about all sectors, including drug delivery and especially pulmonary drug delivery, which has been somewhat overlooked until lately. "It's just now being noticed," said Peter Ginsberg, an analyst with U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis. Although the pulmonary route is not, as yet, widely hailed as the solution for
By Randall Osborne Editor Once hailed as biotech's "magic bullet," monoclonal antibodies have not so much misfired as they seem to have been replaced in the eyes of many investors, at least by the shotgun ammunition made available through genomics, spraying the terrain with previously unavailable data that seem sure to revolutionize medicine. Does last week's $630 million follow-on offering by Abgenix Inc. herald a resurgence of interest in the field, as some analysts propose, or is it
I. FINANCING OF PRIVATE BIOTECHNOLOGY COMPANIES: $289.5 Company Location Date Amt. (M)* Details Adolor Corp. Malvern, Pa. 1/19 $12.3 Adolor raised $12.3M in a private placement that drew previous investors Alta Partners, ARCH Venture Partners, Falcon Technology Partners, OneLiberty Partners, S.R. One Ltd., TL Ventures, Tredegar Investments, and Weiss, Peck & Greer Venture Partners; OrbiMed Advisors participated in this 5th round of financing as well Conjuchem Montreal 1/12 C$3
TOTAL: $811M Company (Symbol)# Type Of Financing Number Of Shares, Units Or Warrants (M) Amount Raised ($M)* Investors; Placement Agents; Details (Date) @ Advanced Tissue Sciences Inc. (ATIS) Exercise of warrants 1.75S $7 The State of Wisconsin Investment Board exercised warrants to purchase 1.75M shares of common stock at $4 per share; warrants were a component of the 3.75M units sold to the investment board in 11/99 and bring the board's direct ownership to more than 16% (1/31
I. COMMENCED TRADING IN JANUARY Company (Symbol) Date Filed Date Comm. Shares/Units Price (M) Shares Out (M) Lead, Other Underwriters Gross ($M) Net ($M) INITIAL OFFERINGS No initial public offerings commenced trading in January. FOLLOW-ON OFFERINGS Gene Logic Inc. (GLGC)1 1/13 1/27 4.68 $56.00 24.8 ING Barings; Chase H&Q; Robertson Stehens; Dain, Rauscher Wessels $262 $249E Vical Inc. (VICL)2 12/16 1/21 3.45 $36.50 19.6 Goldman, Sachs & & Co.; Robertson
Type of financing Jan $(M) Total $(M) Public offerings 387.9 387.9 Private Biotechs 289.5 289.5 Public/other 811.1 811.1 Milestones and equity buys from partners 18.0 18.0 Total $(M) 1,506.5 1,506.5 Notes: Public offerings = Initial, follow-on Private Biotechs = Financing of private firms Public/other = Other financings of public companies, including loans, bridge financings, exercises of warrants, debt offerings, rights offerings, standard private placements, PIPE
Underwriter (Number of Offerings As Lead/Number of Offerings As Lead Or Co-manager) After-Market Performance (Average) Lehman Brothers (1/2) +456% Pacific Growth Equities Inc. (0/2) +393% A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. (0/1) +283% Robertson Stephens (1/7) +252% Invemed Associates Inc. (0/2) +229% Goldman, Sachs & Co. (1/3) +203% Cruttendon Roth Inc. (1/1) +202% China Everbright Securities (0/1) +189% The New China Hong Kong Securities Ltd. (0/1) +189% Westport Resources Investment
By Randall Osborne Editor Talk about an "open window" for financing. That's what biotech analysts have been talking about, off and on, for many months, periodically trotting out the tired "window" metaphor as wave after wave of encouraging financial news crested and then broke against the shore, leaving a suddenly quiet sea of companies, worried again and scrounging for cash. Enthusiasm would rise for a week or two, when a handful of firms found investors or, more rarely, went public
Underwriter (Number of IPOs As Lead/Number of IPOs As Lead Or Co-manager) After-Market Performance (Average) A.G. Edwards & Sons (0/1) +283% Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown@ (1/1) +283% Goldman, Sachs & Co. (1/2) +261% Robertson Stephens (0/2) +261% Invemed Associates (0/2) +229% Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (1/2) +207% Warburg Dillon Read LLC (0/3) +203% China Everbright Securities (0/1) +189% The New China Hong Kong Securities Ltd. (0/1) +189% Westport Resources Investment
Biotech Co.** (Symbol) Pharma Co. (Symbol/Country) Type/Product Area Amount ($M) Terms/Details (Date)@ MODIFIED AGREEMENTS Abgenix Inc. Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) Exercise of option under 12/97 agreement to use Abgenix's XenoMouse technology to generate fully human antibodies against undisclosed antigen targets ND Pfizer exercised an option for a third antigen target; Abgenix will use XenoMouse to generate fully human antibodies for Pfizer and could receive research, license fees and
Biotech Company** (Country) Agribusiness Partner (Symbol/Country) Type/Product Area Amt. ($M) Terms/Details (Month) 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals Inc.* Hoechst Schering AgrEvo GmbH1 (Germany) Research collaboration/use of 3D's compound libraries and DirectedDiversity optimization technology to discover and refine new agrochemicals ND AgrEvo has exclusive rights to commercialize agricultural products discovered during the collaboration; 3D retains rights for non-agrochemical uses of
Company Acquired** (Country) Acquired By Or Merged With (Country) Date Announced Date Completed/Terminated@ Value ($M) Terms/Details PENDING AND COMPLETED Hoechst AG (including Hoechst Schering AgrEvo, a joint venture of Hoechst and Schering AG; both of Germany) Rhone-Poulenc S.A.'s agricultural enterprises (France; NYSE:RP) 12/98 12/99 22,000 Merging of agricultural businesses is part of larger merger of Hoechst's and Rhone-Poulenc's life sciences businesses into Aventis SA (NYSE
By Randall Osborne Editor After the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) voted last April to eliminate the pooling-of-interests accounting rule at the end of this year, some analysts expected biotech firms to hurry along their mergers and acquisitions, and maybe plan to seal their deals before the rule change takes effect. But what seemed due to become an "everybody into the pool" situation has turned into nothing of the kind. Instead, analysts say, companies mulling mergers and
By Randall Osborne Editor Genomics is the buzzword these days for big-money biotechnology investors, but the industry-wide boom has provided "breathing room" for just about all sectors, including drug delivery and especially pulmonary drug delivery, which has been somewhat overlooked until lately. "It's just now being noticed," said Peter Ginsberg, an analyst with U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis. Although the pulmonary route is not, as yet, widely hailed as the solution for