Escaping profitability; Why Elan scooped up Liposome

Biomatrix Inc. has three products on the market and has been profitable for the past four years. But that didn't stop it from becoming the latest biotech company to conclude that having only one major product and shareholders watching EPS every quarter is no way to live. BXM thus concluded that merging with two divisions of Genzyme Corp. to create a company that will not be profitable for a few years was a means of trading near-term bottom line for future growth.

BXM will merge with Genzyme Surgical Products (GZSP, Cambridge, Mass.) and Genzyme Tissue Repair (GZTR, Cambridge, Mass.) to form Genzyme Biosurgery, a new division of Genzyme Corp. The merged company will have 22 marketed products, including BXM's Synvisc viscosupplementation product to treat osteoarthritis of the knee, GZTR's Carticel autologous cultured chondrocytes to treat damaged knee cartilage and GZSP's Seprafilm to reduce post-surgical adhesions...