Biotechnology Companies

A Stifel Nicolaus analyst established "Buy" ratings on a series of biotechnology companies Thursday, although he placed a "Hold" rating on Amgen Inc., the biggest company in the sector. Analyst Joel Sendek said Amgen has the slowest profit growth of the big biotechnology companies, and he thinks its sales will grow less than 2 percent a year through 2015. Sendek said sales of the company's anemia drugs like Epogen will continue a "long and seemingly endless decline" because of some restrictions on their use stemming safety issues — they can make tumors grow faster, for example.

A Stifel Nicolaus analyst established "Buy" ratings on a series of biotechnology companies Thursday, although he placed a "Hold" rating on Amgen Inc., the biggest company in the sector. Analyst Joel Sendek said Amgen has the slowest profit growth of the big biotechnology companies, and he thinks its sales will grow less than 2 percent a year through 2015. Sendek said sales of the company's anemia drugs like Epogen will continue a "long and seemingly endless decline" because of some restrictions on their use stemming safety issues — they can make tumors grow faster, for example.

Christopher Viehbacher, chief executive of French drug maker Sanofi SA, is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at Boston College's Chief Executives' Club of Boston luncheon March 6. Last year, Sanofi acquired Cambridge-based Genzyme Corp., one of the largest biotechnology companies in Massachusetts, for $20.1 billion. In addition to an update on the Genzyme purchase, Viehbacher is scheduled to discuss current and future innovations in the world-wide pharmaceutical and health care industry, BC said.

Christopher Viehbacher, chief executive of French drug maker Sanofi SA, is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at Boston College's Chief Executives' Club of Boston luncheon March 6. Last year, Sanofi acquired Cambridge-based Genzyme Corp., one of the largest biotechnology companies in Massachusetts, for $20.1 billion. In addition to an update on the Genzyme purchase, Viehbacher is scheduled to discuss current and future innovations in the world-wide pharmaceutical and health care industry, BC said.

Investments by venture capitalists in new companies increased dramatically last year, both nationally and in New England, where biotechnology funding led a rebound during the final quarter of 2011. Venture firms invested $28.4 billion in 3,673 US deals in 2011, an increase of 22 percent in dollars and a 4 percent rise in the number of deals compared with the prior year, according to the MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters.

WASHINGTON — Confronted with an expanding set of funding, regulatory, and payment challenges, biotechnology companies must focus on being more selective about the drugs they choose to develop and should join forces with other drug makers and academic researchers, executives at the industry’s biggest annual gathering said yesterday. “You have to decide where you are strong in research and development and where you need partners,’’ said Christopher A. Viehbacher, chief executive of France’s Sanofi SA, which recently bought Genzyme Corp.

US biotechnology companies raised 15 percent more in investment funding last year than in 2009, but “innovation capital’’ — the amount actually spent on drug discovery — declined by 20 percent, according to an Ernst & Young report set to be released today. That’s because nearly half of biotechnology investment money last year was raised through debt financing deals by larger mature companies, which used it to buy back their own shares, boosting earnings and share prices.

By Jaclyn Reiss, Town Correspondent Student speakers at Friday’s Watertown High School graduation looked both ahead and behind in time Friday. They compared the future to building a masterpiece, relived the special places and people that exist only in their hometown, and noted that college degrees are not all-important. Valedictorian Riwaj Thapaliya recalled the difficult decision to leave his home country and come to America, ultimately deciding to start over in a world foreign to him. “As a little boy, I left country I grew up in,” he said.

Biotechnology companies spent years lobbying against allowing generic versions of their expensive cutting-edge medicines, warning that copying complicated drugs made from living cells could put patients at risk and undermine innovators. But that was then. Bowing to the inevitability of low-cost competition as federal officials push to contain health care spending, biotechs are now scrambling to secure a piece of the discount market for themselves. And Massachusetts, known for its influential cluster of biotechnology companies, is...

Massachusetts continued its long slog out of the recession in April, as employers added jobs for the fifth consecutive month and the state unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in more than three years. The jobless rate slipped from 6.5 percent in March to 6.3 percent last month, reaching its lowest level since October 2008, when the financial crisis was near its worst, the state's Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported Thursday. Massachusetts employers added 2,500 jobs last month after increasing payrolls by 7,500 jobs in March.

Investments by venture capitalists in new companies increased dramatically last year, both nationally and in New England, where biotechnology funding led a rebound during the final quarter of 2011. Venture firms invested $28.4 billion in 3,673 US deals in 2011, an increase of 22 percent in dollars and a 4 percent rise in the number of deals compared with the prior year, according to the MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters.

WASHINGTON — Confronted with an expanding set of funding, regulatory, and payment challenges, biotechnology companies must focus on being more selective about the drugs they choose to develop and should join forces with other drug makers and academic researchers, executives at the industry’s biggest annual gathering said yesterday. “You have to decide where you are strong in research and development and where you need partners,’’ said Christopher A. Viehbacher, chief executive of France’s Sanofi SA, which recently bought Genzyme Corp.

US biotechnology companies raised 15 percent more in investment funding last year than in 2009, but “innovation capital’’ — the amount actually spent on drug discovery — declined by 20 percent, according to an Ernst & Young report set to be released today. That’s because nearly half of biotechnology investment money last year was raised through debt financing deals by larger mature companies, which used it to buy back their own shares, boosting earnings and share prices.

By Jaclyn Reiss, Town Correspondent Student speakers at Friday’s Watertown High School graduation looked both ahead and behind in time Friday. They compared the future to building a masterpiece, relived the special places and people that exist only in their hometown, and noted that college degrees are not all-important. Valedictorian Riwaj Thapaliya recalled the difficult decision to leave his home country and come to America, ultimately deciding to start over in a world foreign to him. “As a little boy, I left country I grew up in,” he said.

Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. is set to disclose today that it has won a key patent on its drug to treat a form of leukemia, giving the Cambridge biotechnology company patent protection through 2026 on what could become a major cancer-fighting therapy. Shares of Ariad have more than doubled in price over the past year, climbing sharply since the start of 2012, amid projections that ponatinib, its treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia, or CML, eventually could generate annual sales of more than $1 billion.

The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council designated Woburn a "Platinum Community," the highest honor that the organization provides through its Bioready Community Campaign, which rates municipalities on how welcoming they are to biotech companies. The council bases the ratings on surveys that communities complete on their zoning practices and infrastructure capacity. Woburn is one of fewer than two dozen municipalities to earn the platinum rating, with Boston and Cambridge among the others who have received that distinction.