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Non-Tech : Le coin des francophones -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: faro who wrote (19969)	6/19/2000 12:59:00 PM
From: pallmer	Respond to of 77509

[B] BRICKATES ON BIOTECH: Page me when the genome's here By Val Brickates, BridgeNews Boston--June 19--It's another Friday afternoon. It's another Friday afternoon in June. It's another Friday afternoon in June being spent on "The Celera Watch." * * * It's been 10 days since Celera Genomic's guru Craig Venter told BridgeNews that when he finishes the initial mapping of the elusive human genome, Celera will be sure to give the media the heads up on a Friday afternoon. That way all we mediaheads can spend the weekend writing "The Big Story," in anticipation of "The Announcement," which will be officially disseminated before market open the following Monday. Pretty precise media planning, huh? The gene sequencer guys don't kid around. So now, every Friday, I sit here, making sure that the fax machine is full of paper in case Celera faxes me "The Announcement." Praying to the IT gods that there will be no network glitches in case Celera e-mails me "The Announcement." And not daring to make any outgoing calls, lest Celera calls me during the scant few moments I take to check my voice-mail. The stress, people, is really getting to me. I need closure. Actually, "The Celera Watch" has given my life some continuity, in an odd sort of way. It's made market analysis easier, for one thing. Now, every Thursday, the genomics stocks begin to climb. They peak out midday Friday. Investors go home for the weekend, comforted by the thought that they've made thei r required genomics investments just in case that genome thing pops out of the box before they roll into the office on Monday morning. The investors return on Monday. They learn the genome's not ready yet. And then weekly Monday genomics sell-off commences. And so the scenario repeats itself, week after week. But wait--there are only two Fridays left in June. What do we do if it's July and there's no genome? Luckily, I don't think we'll have to suffer through yet another genome-free summer. I think Celera has come to realize that is quite probable that the media will end up storming their Rockville geno-fortress if they don't cough up "The Announcement" really, really soon. Now that the genome has graced the pages of every single leading national periodical except TV Guide, the science scribes have grown restless. And there's nothing uglier than a pack of disgruntled journalists with nothing to write. The fact is that Venter & Co. can't keep delaying "The Announcement," because in many ways Celera IS 'The Announcement." By steadily feeding the growing media frenzy over the "genome race" with the U.S. government-backed Human Genome Project (HGP), Celera has successfully pounded the notion into many investors' heads that he who finishes first wins the financial prize. So even though finishing a rough draft of the human genome after the HGP does really wouldn't make much difference from a scientific or even a commercial standpoint, it could end up crushing the s tock by failing to meet investor expectations. After all, there's nothing scarier than a disillusioned investor at market open. But all of this worry will likely be for naught, as I'm confident that Celera will indeed make its precious genome draft announcement before June ends. After all, what's the thrill in making "The Announcement" if the media and Wall Street are at the beach, right? So get cranking, Celera. You've got two weeks to go and we've got a long weekend planned for the Fourth. Otherwise, we'll just catch up with you after Labor Day, which coincidentally is about the same time that the government-backed Human Genome Project is scheduled to make its Big Announcement. End. [Begin BridgeLinks] Bridge Tel: 617-737-8229 Send comments to equity@bridge.com [End BridgeLinks] [symbols:US;CRA] Jun-19-2000 16:30 GMT Symbols: US;CRA Source B BridgeNews Global Markets Categories: I/MTC I/MDV R/US FSN/09538 I/ANL I/BTC R/NME T/Z/NS CAP/STOCKS CAP/INDEX MR/NEWS