Steven Burrill predicts biotechnology's fortunes for first-half 2009

The worldwide financing environment in 2009 will be extremely challenging and almost a third of 350 publicly-traded US biotechnology  companies may disappear this year. Capital markets in the USA will  remain turbulent during the first half of 2009, says Steven Burrill,  chief executive of San Francisco-based life sciences investment bank  Burrill & Co. In the second half of the year, the capital markets will  stabilize and the biotechnology sector will benefit from this. Biotech's  elite companies will continue to maintain their momentum with financial  returns meeting analysts' expectations. By year-end, the Burrill Biotech  Select Index will have once again outperformed the general markets and  the Dow Jones Industrial and Nasdaq, he predicts, noting that:

- the large universe of small public and private companies looking for  venture capital will face an extremely challenging 12 months as they try  to find ways to extend their runway and stretch out the funds that they  have remaining. Many will be forced to combine for survival and focus  on the one key program between them that has the greatest opportunity  for value creation and funding. "In this respect, it will not be a 1+1=2  (combination) or 1+1=3 (synergy) but a 1+1=0.5," he said;