A Year-End Review at Xconomy

Here's another look back at biotech's state in 2013, from Luke Timmerman. He's using the well-known "hype cycle" to evaluate where various topic and companies stood: are they in the Peak of Inflated Expectations, the Trough of Disillusionment, the Slope of Enlightenment, or the Plateau of Productivity? (These always sound like locations out of John Bunyan to me, which is not altogether inappropriate). I think he's right that the hottest area right now are the immunotherapies, which have been notching up some dramatic results. But much as I'd like them to, I don't think that they're going to be able to march through the rest of the oncology field in similar fashion. (And yes, I know that I'm asking to put small-molecule oncology out of business with a wish like that. Let's put it this way - if I get cancer, will I be glad that someone has a treatment for it, even if it wasn't from my own field?) I also note that he has Moderna (and messenger RNA-based therapies in general) on the hype list. They made a big splash back in March, and since then things have been pretty quiet (as they probably should be - those guys have a lot of work to do). As I mentioned at the time, my natural wariness at this-changes-everything platforms is cut, in small proportions, with the knowledge that somethings these things do change everything. We'll see, but I'll bet we won't see in 2014.
Source: In the Pipeline - Category: Chemists Tags: Business and Markets Source Type: blogs