Money in biotech, but no jobs

July 30, 2009

Newly cash-flush biotech companies are sending a quick message to the market: Job seekers need not apply.
With venture capitalists and Wall Street wary of biotechs with unfocused cash burn rates, even the handful of companies that have captured cash in recent venture financings or licensing deals are only selectively adding new employees.
That represents a shift from the “what-me-worry” attitude many biotech leaders spouted when capital was readily available to finance the advancement of their drugs through clinical trials little more than two years ago.
Then the bottom fell out of the capital markets, and an estimated four in 10 biotech companies today have barely enough cash to survive into 2010.