BioWorld ranked the underwriters of 2000’s public offerings, both initial and follow-on, in two basic ways.

First, BioWorld ranked the underwriters based on the total amount of gross proceeds raised in both initial and follow-on public offerings combined.

If an underwriting firm acted as the sole placement agent for an institutional offering, then that firm was credited as “lead” underwriter. If more than one firm acted as placement agent, then each was considered to be a co-manager, and credited as such for the purpose of calculating underwriters’ performance.

For analysis on a “Full Credit To Lead” basis, BioWorld applied the total gross proceeds raised in IPO and follow-on offerings to the lead underwriter for those offerings. For each underwriter cited, the graphs also indicate the total number of public offerings in which a particular underwriter acted as the lead underwriter.

For analysis on a “Full Credit To All” basis, BioWorld applied the total gross proceeds raised in all three types of public offerings to each and every major underwriter of that offering (whether the underwriter acted as lead or as co-manager).

Secondly, BioWorld singled out the initial public offerings only and then analyzed underwriter performance. The underwriters were again ranked on both a “Full Credit To Lead” basis and a “Full Credit To All” basis (as described above). The graphs also indicate the total number of IPOs in which a particular underwriter acted as the lead underwriter, as well as the total number of IPOs in which that same underwriter acted as either lead or co-manager.

In addition, BioWorld then analyzed the after-market performance of the IPOs, and ranked the underwriters accordingly. Here, again, underwriters were ranked on both a “Full Credit To Lead” basis and a “Full Credit To All” basis. The after market performance compared the share (or unit) price at the IPO with the share (or unit) price at the end of the calendar year (12/31/00), expressed as percent change. If one particular underwriter acted as either lead or co-manager in more than one IPO, BioWorld calculated the average percent change for those offerings.