Limping

With the BioCentury 100 Price Level Index falling another 2 percent last week (it's down nearly 22 percent since early October), three IPOs fell victim to the soft market. Centocor Diagnostics, RTP Pharma, and Cerep all put their deals on ice. Illustrating the general malaise in biotech, each deal represented a different territory: Centocor Diagnostics was a NASDAQ deal, RTP was to price in Canada, and Cerep was in France's Nouveau Marche.

Centocor Diagnostics, which had hoped to raise up to $40 million, for the time being will remain a wholly owned subsidiary of Centocor Inc. (CNTO). Centocor Diagnostics sells monoclonal antibody-based diagnostics primarily for oncology and cardiovascular disease. RTP had hoped to raise C$25 million (US$17.6 million) in its Canadian IPO. The company develops formulations of drugs that are insoluble or poorly soluble in water...