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Amazon Versus Biotech: How The IPO Class Of '97 Worked Out

 
• By John Hodgson

Life sciences investors pumped around $15 billion into 175 biotech, medtech and diagnostics firms that went public during the 2014–16 IPO window. To understand what may be in store for those firms and their backers, In Vivo reexamines the fate of a previous generation of companies, the IPO Class of 1997.

Amazon-vs-biopharma_1200

Completing an initial public offering ought to be a big step in company development. It is a departure from a cosseted, insulated environment of unique technical approaches and regulatory progress and an entrance into the glare of quarterly scrutiny and comparative financial performance.

To pump $15 billion into life sciences in the 2014–16 window, investors presumably convinced themselves they could pick winners. Two decades of hindsight say otherwise. Indeed, two decades of hindsight...

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