Biotech Drops Back to Earth in August, Burrill Finds

SAN FRANCISCO--(Business Wire)--
While the general markets managed to end August in positive
territory as oil continued a sharp slide, biotech came back to earth
after its stellar performance in July closing in negative territory.
The Dow finished up 1.5%, the NASDAQ closed the month up 1.8% and the
Burrill Biotech Select Index, a price-weighted index tracking 20 of
biotech's "blue chip" companies, was down 5%.

"With the big pharma bids for Genentech and ImClone being
considered in their respective board rooms, investors' attention on
biotech waned slightly in August," said G. Steven Burrill, CEO,
Burrill & Company, a San Francisco based global leader in life
sciences with activities in Venture Capital, Private Equity, Merchant
Banking and Media. "While we haven't seen the end of blockbuster M&A
deals in biotech they won't occur every month. In a quiet month for
biotech news investors were left to worry about the uncertainties
about the economy. We will continue to see these swings in the
fortunes of biotech throughout the rest of the year. However, I expect
that biotech's performance to improve upon its current 10%
year-to-date gain in the final four months of 2008."

Pulling down the Burrill Biotech Select Index was Amylin
Pharmaceuticals whose share price fell 30% in August following news
that four more patients taking Byetta, which is used to treat type 2
diabetes, had died after bouts of pancreatitis. Amylin noted that
diabetics in general also run a notably higher risk of developing
pancreatitis than the general population.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals saw its share value drop 22% after
Schering-Plough Corp. reported positive data from a trial of a
hepatitis C drug, showing it could be a strong competitor to Vertex's
drug candidate telaprevir. Acadia Pharmaceuticals also posted a 14%
drop after reporting a wider-than-expected second-quarter loss and
saying it would cut its work force by about half in a restructuring
move. On the plus side, shares of Affymetrix jumped 9% in August. The
FDA approved its product for in vitro gene expression diagnostic
testing.

The Burrill Biotech Mid-Cap Index managed to remain unchanged in
August following its 18% jump in July.

Market cap

The industry's market cap closed August at $507 billion, easing
back from a record setting $520 billion mark posted mid-month.
Genentech's market cap closed at $104.2B; Amgen remained in second
spot at $66.5 billion with Gilead Sciences at $48.5B.

Biotech Indices

-0-
*T
% %
12/31 7/31 8/29 change change
Index 2007 2008 2008 Month Year
Burrill Biotech
Select 331.52 384.11 363.59 -5.34% 9.67%
Burrill Large
Cap Biotech 437.71 522.3 505.26 -3.26% 15.43%
Burrill Mid-Cap
Biotech 201.89 192.55 192.55 0.00% -4.63%
Burrill Small Cap
Biotech 137.6 119.5 119.21 -0.24% -13.36%
NASDAQ 2652.28 2325.55 2367.81 1.82% -10.73%
DJIA 13264.82 11378.02 11552.18 1.53% -12.91%
Amex Pharma 338.52 303.72 303.96 0.08% -10.21%
*T

Burrill & Company
Peter Winter, Editorial Director, 415-591-5474
pwinter@b-c.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008