NY Times article on CRA, et al. today:<br>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/investing/070200invest-gene.html" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/investing/070200inv...</a> <br>
(free, but registration required).<p>
An excerpt:<p>
While the consortium's data becomes part of the public domain, Celera plans to sell access to its genome data by subscription, seeking in effect to become the Bloomberg of biology. <p>
Celera only has six subscribers, but some analysts said last week's news should spur others to sign up. One bullish analyst was Eric Schmidt of SG Cowen; the announcement, he said, "will serve as an impetus to new collaborations, as Celera has clearly demonstrated its capabilities." <p>
But there are many other ways to play the genomics card. Celera is actually a latecomer to the industry, compared with companies like Incyte Genomics, which has more than 20 subscribers to its database of genes, or Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Human Genome Sciences, both of which have sold data on a more limited basis and are concentrating on making drugs using genomics discoveries. Many mature biotech companies, like Amgen and Genentech, have genomics programs of their own, as do several big pharmaceutical companies. <p>
"We've been fairly negative on genomics stocks," said Stuart Weisbrod, a portfolio manager with the Merlin Biomed Group, a New York hedge fund. "I don't think they reflect economic value yet, and there's been a big misconception on the part of the public that once you have a gene you can have a drug in a bottle in two years. It takes 10 years, and even then, most drugs fail." <p>
Moreover, while sequencing the entire genome is a major scientific accomplishment, there is far more utility in sequencing individual genes whose functions will provide the target for new drugs. Merlin's only major holding in a genomics company is Incyte. "Incyte has a gene database which is already being used to develop drugs" by more than 25 large drug company partners, Weisbrod said. "They have over 500 issued patents with utility, and Celera has zero." |
