Ken:
You asked Miljenko. I'll answer, but certainly to not know what his answer might be.
Bob Oldham's BioTherapeutics (Memphis, Franklin) was the first "personalized medicine" biotech. I owned some shares, maybe 1987?? (!!). Company went *poof* (with Ed Lamphier as V.P. Business Development, btw). They couldn't raise enough bucks to continue on the "personalized medicine" track, and no company has made it since. Margins for a "one size fits all" pharmaceutical are usually better than 90%. For personalized medicine, margins have proven to be 0% until the effort fails.
It's proven to be wise course..... wait until and if the business plan matures, and the company proves that it can turn that "margin" corner.
I was a frequent visitor to Franklin and Memphis at the time, as I worked for a (crappy) company that was engaged in a Medarex-like project with BioTherapeutics. We were constructing bispecific monoclonals, one arm of which was anticipated to target "a cancer" while the other arm, anti-CD1, was intended to non-specifically stimulate (and recruit) cytotoxic T cells.
Everything in biotech is new, with the exception of cancer immunology companies. There, the concepts are reborn, reborn, and reborn again.
The only link that I could find which might be of interest.....
aidsinfobbs.org
edit: here's another link that might be fun......
the-scientist.com
and here's a bit of flavor.....
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Rick |
