Ernst & Young (E&Y; The Hague) released its annual European Life Sciences report in April, entitled "Communicating Value." The report's most important message, according to E&Y partner William Powlett Smith, is that companies must be careful in informing their shareholders about the value of the research they are conducting. A lack of accurate communication is blamed for last summer's collapse of British Biotech (Nature Biotechnology 16, 503, 1998). The demise of British Biotech (Oxford, UK), along with three other leading companies—Biocompatibles (Farnham, UK), Cortecs (Cambridge, UK) (Nature Biotechnology 17, 12, 1999), and Scotia (Stirling, UK)—was the primary cause of the UK bioscience devaluation over the year to 1994 levels, says the report. However, E&Y notes that, before their collapse, these firms accounted for more than 50% of the total value of the UK public sector, obscuring the success of other European companies. Pharming (Leiden, The Netherlands), for example, raised $70.8 million through an initial public offering on Easdaq in February 1998.