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Investor malaise stalks UK, European biotech

Nature Biotechnology volume 26, pages 256–257 (2008)Cite this article

As the dust settles on 2007's stock market performance, two things are clear. First, the European biotech sector lost significant value compared with the US industry. Second, though things were sour in the EU overall, the UK industry was by far the weakest performer in Europe.

The numbers show that European biotech stock prices fell by 23% on average, says Peter Welford, a London-based biotech analyst at merchant bank Lehman Brothers. Within that, UK stocks were down 26%. But when weighted for market capitalization to reflect actual company valuations, the UK biotech industry performed woefully: down by nearly 40%, according to Thomson Financial figures, whereas market cap–weighted biotech shares fell by only 8% for the year European-wide, says Welford. Over the same period, the US biotech sector, as measured by the AMEX or NASDAQ biotech indices, rose 4–5%—not a boom, exactly, but respectable in the face of global instability.

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Figure 1: London biotech stocks (BioCentury London Index, the combined market capitalization for 14 bioscience stocks listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) or LSE's Alternative Investment Market (AIM)) versus FTSE 100 (Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 stock index).

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    Peter Mitchell

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Mitchell, P. Investor malaise stalks UK, European biotech. Nat Biotechnol 26, 256–257 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0308-256c

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