To the extent that the health care debate thinks about biotech, the focus is on how quickly generics can be introduced so as to cut immediate costs.
Back in the real world, investors seem dubious about the industry. Xconomy is running a series and concluded: "Luke did a massive analysis of the financial health of all the public biotech companies we follow the Boston area and the news… Well, it wasn’t good." The situation:
Even though jobs have been cut, drug candidates have been shelved, and some last-ditch partnerships have been struck, all that frenzied activity didn’t really add up to a strengthened financial future for a majority of the region’s money-losing companies. The cash crunch has prompted a couple of Massachusetts companies to fold this year . . . a couple more to sell out for a pittance . . . and one company that actually improved its financial position to move to Wisconsin . . . .
Rather than worrying about sharing the wealth, the political system should be worrying more about how to produce the wealth in the first place. The Xconomy report is not exactly a harbinger of Spring.
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