Wilder,
I was surfing the X-Ray crytallography stuff again, in part to see if the Emerald BioStuctures folks (of MCLS) had tipped their hand at all regarding their techniques for resolving membrane-bound proteins. Didn't find much beyond topoisomerase stuff they made their names with, but found these related primers:
"A Guide to Structure Prediction"
bmm.icnet.uk
"Protein Folding and Protein Structure Prediction"
ismb2000.sdsc.edu
Even the private companies SignalsMag identifies as leaders don't say much -- yet -- about their business models with respect to their discoveries. Yes, they intend to sell their targets or compounds they've IND'd. But for royalties or cash? I'd guess they'd go for single digit royalties if they take development as far as the IND stage. Emerald has had to settle for cash, which isn't helping MCLS as the outsourcing trend is apparently stalled by consolidation at big pharma, causing MCLS to downsize its laboratory operations. Apparently, the end results as yet do not have sufficiently proven utility to command a deals better than we've seen. Such as the Emerald/NBIX deal.
Fun to watch, and to see how much of this is in San Diego, but hard to see how the serious money will be made. Wonder if they'll get munched before they make many deals. IPOing is tough; NetGenics finally withdrew its IPO recently. The VC haven't been getting much money by selling their BLUE H stocks at ridiculous prices. So I see that source drying up some and the cycle swinging back towards IPOs eventually. In the meantime: lean time.
Cheers, Tuck |
