Jeff Fischer addressed Amgen's prospects positively at the end of January. The partners presumably share revenues. The companies release the deals' financial details, so investors must watch Celera's revenue, cash burn rate, and any announcements of results from the deals. He reminded us of HGS' purchase of antibody technology from aptly-named Cambridge Antibody Technologies to make monoclonal antibodies as big a focus of HGS research and development as therapeutic proteins. Alert biotech investors may recall a worldwide dearth of manufacturing capacity in just those two core HGS research and development areas.
Sources report that contract manufacturing organizations are booked one to two years out.
Never fear, because HGS may be sitting in the catbird seat. In February, HGS announced completion of a 42,000 square foot plant to support clinical trials of its projected antibody drugs. That ain't all. We'll be keeping our eye on HGS' cash burn, given that its first products are unlikely to hit the market until around 2005. In the meantime, to provide today's King of Understatements, the company appears to be ensuring that its success or failure won't be due to lack of capacity to produce and test its drug candidates in a timely manner.