Europe's Iceberg III

As European investors continue to put the bulk of their money to work in U.S. companies, Europe's biotech industry needs to figure out what it is about U.S. companies that makes them more attractive. In doing so, the European sector should become better able to attract investors from all over the globe - which, in turn, ought to make it more attractive to European investors.

A year ago, BioCentury's second survey of public and private European biotech companies indicated that to have enough money to get through the three years to the end of 2005, companies with products in Phase II and beyond needed about $1.2 billion, including some $336 million for cash-burning public companies and about $887 million on the private side (see BioCentury, May 12, 2003). ...