Biotech: as profitable as airlines

and almost as reliable! Such could be the motto for the biotechnology industry, which as lots of hype, a few sucesses and lots of red ink, according to this article.

Read the article if you are interested, but this quote, by economist Joseph Cortright, sums it up:

"The mistake that people make is confusing science that is really cool with something that is going to have a significant economic impact," he said.

The big problem as I see it is that there are lots of good ideas, few of which actually make it to the clinically useful (and therefore renumerative) stage. It takes a lot of research to develop each idea and that means a lot of money.

But remember the industry is expanding, so lots of money is being marked up as "losses" today that may lead to big money in the future. For the record, I don't invest in biotech or biotech companies except as they are represented in general mutual funds.