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Biotech / Medical : Biotechnology Value Fund, L.P. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (220)	7/24/1998 11:49:00 PM
From: aknahow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4974

IMO funding is about to get easier not harder. The key movers IMO will be DuPont and Merck. DuPont for acquisitions and funding partnerships. Taking Merck at its' word and assuming no acquisitions they will still more active in joint research projects. The first shoe has not fallen and yet Monsanto a supposed target spent $6 billion on acquiring seed companies, some of them involved in genetic enhancement. Once DuPont or Merck make their first move the pressure that must already be on the other other big pharmas will become more intense. This in turn will renew interest in the sector and make funding easier. I do not think the merger and acquisition staff at International Pharamucetuical companies can simply sit back and wait for the competition to make the first move. They may even move first. The above combined with news worthy breakthroughs should stimulate interest in biotechs. As someone posted on the Merck thread biotechs like the Internet stocks are Dream stocks. Yes, it is a sector that is out of favor. Yes, anyone out of cash before it regains favor probably will have problems. However, hedge funds like BVF are not going to stop investing in biotech stocks, nor is it clear that the super rich like Gates and the head of Oracle represent the start or the end of a move to invest some of their fortunes in biotech companies. If you have made billions in an Internet or high tech company can you become a good guy by investing in a biotech searching for a cure to something terrible? Can you perhaps even defeat a threat to your own existence? It has to be tempting to those with unlimited wealth. New funding methods will be found as you said. I think one might also see a tendency to raise more cash in each offering instead of the present annual or bi annual dibs and dabs type funding. While the non fixed price c.v.p. issues may die off I could see a junk bond type of financing, with an established conversion price above market but that would drop by 20% per year and pay no interest. (various permutations of this). Perhaps one version convertible into more than one companies shares. Other methods have already been used on an infrequent basis by some biotechs and I would think these could become more common. BTW while I am willing to look foolish by saying all this, I am not willing to define what I mean by the term, "about". <g>