Aggregated News
The financial crunch is shaking the foundation of the global biotech industry, threatening to slow the development of new medicines and cut high-tech jobs in the U.S. and Europe.
Many small biotech firms are expected to file for bankruptcy, cancel drug trials, lay off workers or sell out to large companies over the coming year, industry executives say.
[Biotech Firms]
The biotech industry, largely made up of hundreds of private and public companies with just a handful of drugs in development each, has produced some of the most successful new medicines for cancer, HIV and other diseases in recent years.
In the long term, a hobbled biotech industry would be bad news for big pharmaceutical companies, which increasingly rely on biotech start-ups to invent products the giants can acquire and market.
"The whole way of doing business is gone, at least temporarily. Companies that don't have a lot of cash or assets to generate cash" are in jeopardy, said George A. Scangos, chief executive of Exelixis Inc., a South San Francisco, Calif., biotech company.
In the U.S., 38% of 370...
Many small biotech firms are expected to file for bankruptcy, cancel drug trials, lay off workers or sell out to large companies over the coming year, industry executives say.
[Biotech Firms]
The biotech industry, largely made up of hundreds of private and public companies with just a handful of drugs in development each, has produced some of the most successful new medicines for cancer, HIV and other diseases in recent years.
In the long term, a hobbled biotech industry would be bad news for big pharmaceutical companies, which increasingly rely on biotech start-ups to invent products the giants can acquire and market.
"The whole way of doing business is gone, at least temporarily. Companies that don't have a lot of cash or assets to generate cash" are in jeopardy, said George A. Scangos, chief executive of Exelixis Inc., a South San Francisco, Calif., biotech company.
In the U.S., 38% of 370...