Ontogeny Grows the Family Tree

A man with a cistern full of water doesn't stand out in an oasis. But it's a different thing when you put him in the middle of a desert. That's how Doros Platika, MD, president and CEO of privately held Ontogeny Inc. , explains his company's thinking when it decided in February to merge with publicly traded Creative BioMolecules Inc. and Reprogenesis Inc. , another private company, at a time when IPO money has been flowing freely [See Deal]. Creative's shareholders will own 43% of Curis, Ontogeny's 38%, and Reprogenesis's 19%. The relative valuations were negotiated, based on assumptions of what Ontogeny and Reprogenesis could have sustained in an IPO, what each of the three companies were contributing to Curis, and what Curis could have sustained in an IPO.

"What we've done is not going to shine right now, when biotech is so popular with investors. But fashions come...