Ebb & Flow

With three Phase III setbacks, a high profile Phase II setback and more ImClone woes hitting the tape last week, Street watchers hope the industry is simply getting its blowups out of its system early. The news led to an 8.3% tumble in the BioCentury 100. The loss was nearly twice that of the NASDAQ Composite, which fell 4.6%. Last week's slide puts the BC100 down 12% on the year, while the NASDAQ is down only 1%.

Some were worried that the setbacks were prompting investors to take money off of the biotech table indiscriminately, especially from companies that are in late-stage development. ...