US Biotech closes out 2010 on a high, says Burrill

The biotechnology industry closed out the year 2010 on a high, with the Burrill Biotech Select Index surging 4.5% in December and end the year up almost 17%.

“The biotech industry certainly benefited from a return of investor confidence in the second half of the year, particularly the final quarter, which saw the Select index climb 10.7%,” said Steven Burrill, chief executive of Burrill & Company, a diversified global financial services firm focused on the life sciences industry. “Our prediction, at the beginning of the year, that the Select Index would outperform the Dow Jones industrial average in 2010 played out…with the Dow recording an 11% increase in value in 2010,” he noted.

“From a low point in July, fortunes for the biotech industry changed,” said Mr Burrill, adding: “This was fueled partly by an easing of concerns about a double-dip recession as well as hopes for a better economic outlook for the USA. In addition, the continuing developments relating to Sanofi Aventis’ bid to acquire Genzyme…a saga that is still unresolved, and the pop in the shares of Dendreon on the announcement that its prostate cancer therapy Provenge (sipuleucel-T) had finally been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, as well as strong second quarter financial results from biotech’s large-cap companies put a spark back into biotech.”