At a crowded lunch table at Windhover's Euro-Biotech 2001 conference, the CFO of a new proteomics company describes his start-up's ability to identify sets of disease-associated proteins. Like every other biotech start-up executive, he's staying far away from articulating a platform strategy and instead talks about product alliances. "We've got a far more certain set of drug targets," he argues. "But no one's paying a lot for targets," says a senior European executive.
We interrupt: why not focus on the diagnostic possibilities? "Because you can't raise money for diagnostics," the European says categorically....