The decision of when to raise capital sometimes becomes more of a macroeconomic issue than one based solely on the status of an individual company. Yet the macro picture remains hazy – some analysts think things will get better, while others think they will get worse.
As the biotech industry matured – and drug makers both big and small faced capital constraints – spinning off assets into separate companies developed into a popular mechanism to increase shareholder value.
The annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases kicks off this week, but biotechs with hepatitis C drugs may be busier talking with potential partners than with hepatologists during the event.
ChemoCentryx Inc. and Cempra Holdings LLC just filed S-1s within a week of each other, joining the limited number of biotechs looking to test the initial public offering (IPO) waters. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 14, 2011, and Oct. 18, 2011.)
