GTC Biotherapeutics (fka GTCB)

[vinmantoo]

biopearl,

You are exactly right. There is no way Genzyme would keep GTCB on its books since the losses that accrue during development would destroy their bottom line. They did what any smart company would do, spin off GTCB and take shares in the company. I worked in a big pharma prior to going to graduate shcool. They do not like to take risks for the same reasons why Genzyme spun off GTCB and they are very short sighted. Big pharma would rather wait until after a concept has been proven, and then buy back in even if it costs them far more than if they got in early. No big executive wants to put themselves on the line with a failure that doesn't pan out. In the case of GTCB, it means waiting until FDA approval or rATIII, and quite possibly even for FOB legislation passage for the doors to be open wide for big pharma.

As DEW explained so well what happened with some big companies who contracted with GTCB. I would also point out that some of these antibodies were often undisclosed and in pre-clinical status, so like what happened with Merrimack or PGNX, they could have failed trials, or been shelved for more promising internal projects, respectively. That is why GTCB's shift into making rare or hard to produce plasma proteins is a much better approach. Too bad that wasn't the direction from the start.

My whole point for raising these issues was to illustrate the distortions and misrepresentations from Johnbits.