Allen, This is right up my ally. I'm going to buy a basket of these then widdle them away or keep them as I watch them perform. I just started looking close at this, so I have no idea which of the below are worth investing in if at all. I'll post here on what I find after I do my DD tonight. If you have anything to add please let me know.
And thanks,
Greg
<<Genomics tool makers move into spotlight
By Deena Beasley
LOS ANGELES, June 26 (Reuters) - With a working map of the human genome in hand, scientists are moving on to the daunting job of figuring out the function of each gene, a task some expect to shift the biotech spotlight onto so-called "genomics tool" companies.
"This is sort of like the Gold Rush days. During the gold rush what you really wanted to be into were the folks who sold the picks and shovels. A lot of people thought they'd strike gold, but the ones that were really making money in the short term were the ones that sold picks and shovels," said Erick Lucera, an analyst at Independence Investment Advisors.
This time, the mining equipment is more likely to be high- volume computer systems, scanners and other instruments that are able to organize and analyze huge amounts of genetic data, extracting only the most valuable nuggets.
Celera Genomics <CRA.N>, a Rockville, Md.-based company founded with the specific purpose of being the first to map the human genome, said on Monday it had finished the sequence and assembled the genetic code.
The Human Genome Project, a publicly funded international effort that has been working toward the same goal, said it had finished a rough draft of the genome sequence and completed 85 percent of the assembly.
The achievement is only the first step of a decades-long process that scientists say will transform medicine by allowing doctors to tailor drugs for each individual and to predict who is at risk of certain diseases.
"The puzzle pieces are coming together. This allows researchers to have a frame of reference for their discoveries," said Michael Becker, an analyst at Wayne Hummer Investments.
No matter who the winners are in the in the race to discover new drugs, some analysts say investors may be well served by companies that provide tools for sifting through the huge volumes of genetic data.
For the next couple of years, investors should focus on tool makers, like Waters Corp. <WAT.N>, or PE Biosystems <PEB.N>, that are likely to snag a portion of the research money being funneled to genomics screening, Lucera said.
"The demand for sequencing is only going to increase -- we estimate by a 20 percent compound annual basis -- for the foreseeable future," said Paul Kelly, an analyst at ING Barings.
He too named PE Biosystems, the systems unit of PE Corp., which is also the parent of Celera Genomics, along with Affymetrix Inc. <AFFX.O>, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based firm that makes systems to acquire, analyze and manage genetic information, as companies likely to benefit from the milestone sequencing announcement.
"While this important milestone should not be understated, it is important to now support the massive effort required to examine the genomes of hundreds to thousands of individuals to uncover human variation and its consequences for human disease. The effort to understand these variations will dwarf the initial task of sequencing the genome," Stephen Fodor, chairman of Affymetrix, said in a statement.
Affymetrix' GeneChip technology allows researchers to pinpoint the function of newly discovered genes.
Another company likely to do well is Sangamo Biosciences Inc. <SGMO.O>, which makes technology products used to identify and evaluate genes and the proteins that regulate them, Kelly said.
"All drugs on the market today interact with proteins," said Becker. "Insulin is a protein key to diabetes. There are also proteins that regulate genes related to Alzheimer's and cancer."
And once those proteins are discovered, researchers will need to find the chemical entities to interfere with them.
Becker expects genomics companies like Celera, tool companies and biotechnology companies to eventually come together to form drug discovery conglomerates.
"There will be a lot of mergers and acquisitions of complementary technologies," the analyst said.
"It's similar to the software industry," Becker added. Microsoft moved into spreadsheets, word processing and databases, eventually offering everything to its customers." |
