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Biotech / Medical : Biotech Valuation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jayhawk969 who wrote (5207)	12/22/2001 11:46:54 AM
From: scaram(o)uche	Respond to of 52153

Two large, successful companies that had weak near-term pipes, Amgen due to poor selection of targets and "invented here" syndrome, Immunex due to some bad luck. One simply can't use this merger as a yard stick for the leveraged, smaller companies. The fact? While AMGN has come back 15% and IMNX is way off its recent highs, the companies have a combined market cap of $75 billion on the back of three products. That's a 1000-bagger for many small cap biotechs.

To: jayhawk969 who wrote (5207)	12/22/2001 3:20:32 PM
From: scaram(o)uche	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 52153

Commenting a bit further on the Barron's article..... The only thing that ticks me off is equating four or five large, relatively inefficient companies with "biotech". Otherwise, I largely agree with their thesis. Amgen had huge success. Binder became CEO. He was sensational at wringing every efficiency out of operations and marketing. Regulatory and Clinical were well-oiled machines. The company could not have functioned more efficiently, except for one element..... R&D. I again assert that Amgen would be the world's largest pharma if Binder had been COO and if "a" Patrick Gage (Genetics Institute's President, Wyeth-Ayerst Research) had been CEO. R&D at Amgen was characterized by arrogance and territorial in-fighting. The cash stash was not used with foresight at a point (among the most glaring of time points, 1998) when technology was available for close-to-free. It was very frustrating to watch. Small cap biotech, the realm where valuations are constantly out of whack....... long and short, there are constant opportunities for the well-informed stock-picker. I continue to assert that "the next Amgen" could be a heck of a lot better.