Eurobio plays mixed on NASDAQ

European biotech companies quoted on NASDAQ appear to be missing out on the wild investor enthusiasm in the U.S. With the BioCentury 100 index rising 166 percent since Oct. 15, only Genset (NM:Genset; GENXY) and Qiagen (NMarkt:QIA; QGENF) seem to be keeping pace with the NASDAQ crowd. British companies on NASDAQ have turned in performances that are more in line with the 84 percent improvement in the BioCentury London Index over the same period.

The top performing European stock on NASDAQ in the last five months is the French genomics play Genset, which is up nearly 400 percent since Oct. 15, taking its market cap to r1.4 billion ($1.4 billion)...