Big spenders

In the mid-1990s, investors were appalled when a handful of companies began sporting burn rates of $50 million a year. Today, those figures hardly merit a second glance, and the industry is not short of companies that can make good arguments that they need to burn $50-$100 million a year in order to get anywhere.

At the same time, CEOs are seeking to find a balance: keeping enough cash to get to the next financing window, but at the same time not paring the pipeline to the point where the company is a one-trick pony. The challenge for the outside world is to discern which companies are spending wisely and those that are bloated, wasting money on too many employees, too many facilities and programs that are going nowhere. ...