From Publishers Weekly
With the population aging and eager for medical innovations, the market for biotechnology is vast. But for investors looking at biotech firms, it can be a minefield: before a company?s brilliant ideas pan out as profitable products, they must go through years of costly research and development, clear government regulatory hurdles and sometimes, as with genetically modified foods, weather political controversy. This informative and well-written primer will hel…
Buy The Biotech Investor: How to Profit from the Coming Boom in Biotechnology at Amazon
An excellent introduction to biotech investing.
Tom Abate is a good writer and knows his subject. I thought this book was written in a guarded, pragmatic way that suits the reader’s purpose (presumably investment). The dustjacket shouts of a ‘coming boom’ but the author can be forgiven for what is basically puffery. Abate is clearly arguing for a period of drawn out growth fuelled by demographics and accelerating technical progress – not an imminent goldrush.
I gained a number of insights I consider valuable:
-An understanding of the mechanism of FDA approval and how companies manage themselves around it.
-The fluid business models of existing companies.
-The way in which institutional fund managers seem to advocate active trading over a ‘buy and hold’ approach to biotech portfolios (this surprised me).
Timely, relevant and convincingly argued. I’d probably buy another book by this author.
Very good book on the unique concepts of biotech investing. It covers all areas and would be useful for beginners or advanced investors.
Tom Abate has been covered the Biotech industry for the San Francisco Chronicle for years. It shows. He brings a strong dose of reality to this hype driven sector.
Who this book is for:
-Independent investors willing to spend a lot of time doing research
-People looking for a current industry overview
-Job seekers
The Good:
-Extremely well written
-Up to Date (as of spring 2003)
-Knowledgeable – several small tidbits of data pay for the book by themselves
The Bad:
-Will quickly go out of date. For example the Appendix contains a list of firm websites and market caps; Market Caps change – companies disappear.
-Not enough FDA information. This should have been a separate chapter covering the FDA approval process in detail as well as other countries’ processes.
-Too much basic investment advice: firm valuation/free cash flow/ portfolio theory / investor risk profile. Other books do a better, more thorough job of this.
-No bibliography
I gave it 5 stars because if you are going to invest in biotech the book will more than pay for itself.