Jim,
You asked about competition. That's a big can of worms. Most, if not all at this point, big pharma have their own in-house combichem groups {or at least combichemists}. That includes, for example, Zeneca, but that didn't stop them from signing a deal with PCOP. Among strictly Combichem companies, Carlos (post #4) mentioned ArQule, which IMHO is a good company. Others include Versicor (spin off of Sepracor), Diversomer Tech (spinoff of Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis), Affymax (now owned by, I think, Glaxo), the company formerly known as Houghton (forgot the new name-- Terga or Terpa or something), Ontogen, and a host of much smaller places with names like Irori, CombiChem, SARCO, etc.
My point is that it is a very crowded field. But I would disagree with a previous poster who said that this will all converge down to 4-5 companies in the next few years. I would agree only if there are a lot of mergers/acquisitions. The kinds of molecules PCOP can make are different than the ones Versicor can make which are different than what Houghten can make which are different . . . etc.: and they all could make decent drug leads.
Sorry for all the chatter but this is a huge topic, and the PCOP thread seems to be the only combichem-company thread on SI-- that's a shame. Because as exciting as Biotech is, the really big money is in actually getting drugs. A Biotech may have great technology, but without the right molecule will never get a drug (i.e., no money). A combichem company can get them their drugs (and make a nice piece of change for themselves). |
