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To: Robert Rose who wrote (99070)	4/5/2000 3:31:00 PM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

>his Zeitgist leaves something to be desired Robert LOL, Its Zeitgeist...German. the general trend of thought or feeling of a particular period of time. Did I tell you it was bio-tech time earlier today or what? Even San Diego based Sqnm came back today. Btw Look for British prime-minister Tony Blair to back up Monica's friend. >LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - European biotech shares were braced for another heavy sellout on Wednesday as heavy selling of their U.S. counterparts continued on Tuesday amid fears the sector's downturn could put the brakes on a slew of forthcoming initial public offerings. But analysts and fund managers said the latest sell-off could just be a correction for a sector that had seen sharp rises over a short period. However, an immediate recovery still seemed distant late on Tuesday as the biotech shares in the U.S. continued their slide for the second consecutive day this week. The Nasdaq's biotech index <.IXB> was down over eight percent at 958.67 at 1740 GMT on Tuesday, amid a sweeping technology sell-off and it follows a five percent dip on Monday. The index doubled in value last year, then nearly doubled again in this year's first two months, before trimming its gains on the year to a more modest 16 percent at Monday's close. "Earlier in the year the relative valuations in pharmaceuticals and biotech, particularly genomic companies had come out of alingment and we expected a correction at some point this year, however, the severety of the current correction is causing investors to loose confidence in these markets," said Chad Floe of Lehman Brothers. British biotech firm Oxford Biomedica <OXB.L> slid 9.5 percent to 57-1/2 pence, while Peptide Therapeutics <PTE.L>, the subject of recent bid talk, was off 13 percent to 99-1/2 pence despite an overall strong year-end statement. PPL Therapeutics <PTH.L>, the creators of Dolly the sheep and the first cloned pigs, also trailed 6.38 percent to 132 pence despite news it had positive results in phase II trials for a product to treat patients with pancreatic insufficiency. The only company that escaped investors' wrath was drug delivery firm SkyePharma Plc <SKP.L> which rose 4.4 percent to 118-1/2p on the back of a deal with U.S. group Amgen Inc <AMGN.O>. In mainland Europe, Ares Serono <AREZ.S> was down 400 Swiss francs to 5,700 on the Swiss Exchange, while Germany's Rhein Biotech <RNBT.F> was off seven percent to 118.50 euros on the neuer markt stock exchange "It's like the Grand Ol' Duke of York going all the way up the hill and right back down againe," said John Savin, analyst at brokers Greig Middleton, referring to the well-known nursery rhyme. DESPITE GLOOM, SECTOR STILL ATTRACTIVE Biotech's current correction was almost inevitable after prices went through a "dot-com" style run-up in the first few months of the year, fund managers and analysts said. The downturn forced at least one U.S. biotech company, Rigel Pharmaceuticals, to postpone a planned IPO last week until this week due to market conditions, raising doubt on a host of other U.S. and European biotechs due to make it to market in the coming months. The market has weakened further since last week although for the time being, Rigel is slated to start trading on Thursday. Britain's Cambridge Antibody <CAT.L> this week scaled back a new issue of shares to a target 90 million pounds from an original target of 100 million because of market conditions. "What happens in the U.S. will just flow onto here. People will take a longer, harder look at some of these," Daniel Roach, CEO of British biotech firm CeNeS Pharmaceuticals Plc. <CEN.L>, told Reuters. But Roach and others said there was still unprecedented interest in biotech as companies race to turn information on human genetics into tomorrow's disease-busting wonder drugs. "The sector is here to stay. There are breakthroughs, there are products coming. Overall, I'm confident. The good companies will always get funding," he said. Weston Medical, a British drug delivery company, and DeCode Genetics, an Iceland based biotech firm, both said on Tuesday they were going ahead with plans to go public later this year. DeCode plans to raise $200 million. Schroder Ventures also announced a successful completion of a fund raising round for 12 million pounds for Nexan Plc, a medical device company. Schroders was supported by 3i Group Plc <III.L>, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Prelude, Advent and Aurora. "I am not overly worried. One can expect to see a period of volatility for sure and a shake-out of the quality names. I am very confident that we are not going into another long bear market which followed the previous bull run," said Nick Woolfe, European biotech analyst with ABN Amro. Added Savin at Greig Middleton: "We have some very good quality companies in the sector now which I think can perform on old or new money...it doesen't really matter." 15:20 04-04-00 >SEQUENOM INC COM(SQNM) Bid: 32 5/8 BidSize: 4 Open: 24 7/8 Ask: 33 AskSize: 2 Close: 24 1/8 Last: 33 High: 37 1/2 Div.: 0 Change: +8 7/8 Low: 24 5/16 Yield: 0 A.High: 191 1/4 P/E: 0 Volume: 1500100 A.Low: 21 EPS: 0 Market :NASDAQ NM Tick: Up