BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

Tier jumping

July 17, 2000 7:00 AM UTC

Biotech's mid-cap space is a closely watched sector because it serves as a feeder pool for tomorrow's top tier companies. Of the 30 companies that began the year as mid-cap plays - defined by BioCentury as market valuations between $700 million and $3 billion - nine had graduated by the end of the second quarter into the large cap space occupied by companies valued above $3 billion. Some companies made it through organic growth, while others did it by combining stables. The latter group includes Shire (LSE:SHP; SHPGY) through its January merger with Roberts Pharmaceutical, and Celltech (LSE:CCH;CLL), which acquired Medeva and Chiroscience.

The other keys for moving up in the first half were to have reached the market or to be antibody plays. Of the nine, eight have products on the market, while two - Abgenix (ABGX) and Protein Design (PDLI) (which also has a marketed product) - have MAb platforms. Another MAb developer - Medarex (MEDX) - was knocking on the big cap door with a $2.97 billion valuation at June 30...