British Biotech, hounded

OXFORD - It seems to be a case of batten down the hatches as Britain's former biotech flagship, British Biotech (LSE:BBG; BBIOY, Oxford, U.K.) attempts to steer itself through the current storm. Although BBG's lack of response to a series of allegations in the British press about how it has conducted its business has frustrated shareholders, the company's share price did recover last week from 49p to close at 64.8p, a market cap rebound of some £100 million (US$167 million).

While not as white hot as American media coverage of Monica Lewinsky, BBG has been bombarded by saturation coverage of the company's divorce from its former head of clinical research Andrew Millar, questions about the status of its lead products in development, and speculation that BBG's institutional shareholders were about confront management head on...