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Focal Seals its Fate

Investors in biomedical stocks are a tough crowd. They want to see current revenue streams and a pipeline of large-market products. Unfortunately, surgical sealant developer Focal Inc. provided neither to a sufficient degree. In early May, Focal agreed to merge into Genzyme Biosurgery in a stock swap transaction. The modest purchase price of $12 million bears witness to the fact that Focal simply did not do a good job of making the transition from a technology developer to a product manufacturer, at least not in the timeframe of investors.

Investors in biomedical stocks are a tough crowd. They want to see current revenue streams and a pipeline of large-market products. Unfortunately Focal Inc. provided neither to a sufficient degree. Although it has a promising bioresorbable polymer with many potential applications in surgery and drug delivery and more than 70 issued patents, when it came to executing on products, Focal's story was "too little too late."

Focal stock, which traded at $18 per share soon after its IPO in 1997 [See Deal], rarely went north...

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