Excellent Year For The Biotechnology Industry

The biotechnology industry never had a better year than 1996, with product sales, approvals, launches, reduced regulatory development times, aggressive capital markets and increased corporate alignment fueling biotechnology's boom, according to Steven Burrill, chief executive of Burrill & Co and author of Ernst & Young's "Biotech 97: Alignment."

The report noted that in a year marked by an unusually positive alignment of many of the key forces affecting the industry, the sector has turned in some stunning results. The year's most significant achievements were on the product approval front, the report noted, with more than 20 significant new products being approved in the USA.

These products included Interneuron's Redux (dexfenfluramine), Sequus' Doxil (liposomal doxorubicin), Gilead's Vistide (cidofovir) and NeXstar's DaunoXome (liposomal daunorubicin). While the larger biotechnology companies continued to advance their products, as Biogen did with Avonex (interferon beta-1a), the report noted that many of this year's new products fuel a new breed of companies as the overall industry adds breadth.