A bearish view from a blog:
Perlegen Sciences (PERL) is another player in this field, that has just filed to come public.
Company: Given the sordid history of these efforts, coupled with the large failure rate in drug design, we were hoping that Perlegen, like Affymetrix (of which they are a spin-off), would be something like a tool company that sells to all the other players, but rather they seem to be pursuing their own drug designs, and assisting in clinical trial efficacy enhancement (just like the other players).
I fail to see what they bring to the table that is novel, although there are so many subtleties involved in successful research that there is almost always room for another team. But the most likely thing is that they will fail, so the question is whether they have jumped over those odds by already proving viability.
According to their initial prospectus the answer is No. “We have incurred $153.1 million in cumulative net losses since our inception in 2001, and we expect losses to continue for the foreseeable future.” They are just another biotech gamble, with bigger risks than average, but also bigger - if however unlikely - potential rewards. If you are into biotech gambling, they are as good a dice roll as any. That is, there is absolutely nothing predictable nor assured about their financial returns. Sort of a Dog and sort of just Blah.
Stock: They have filed to list under PERL. For comparison, Human Genome Sciences (HGSI) and Celera (CRA) have been flat for 3 years, the current market for biotech IPO’s has been brutal, and Symyx (SMMX) - a similar Affymetrix spin off focusing on using combinatorix to develop useful inorganic compounds - has not had a particularly interesting stock pattern for the last couple of years. The Genome Project excitement of 2000 is no longer, and based on other biotechs coming public recently, we expect PERL to be boring. Pass. |
