OVER the past three years, US biotech companies have absorbed hard knocks like a punch-drunk boxer, sending stock prices into a dizzying descent. But the market has rallied during 2003, proving you can never count biotech out.
Corporate scandals, clinical trial failures, fewer drug approvals, deflated expectations of genome-inspired breakthroughs and a turbulent world economic climate conspired to create a deep aversion to risk among investors. The decline from record highs in 2000 has been dramatic. The Nasdaq biotech index lost more than two-thirds of its value between its peak in February 2000 and January 2003.
For an industry in…
