Newsmaking Biotechs Lead Sector Surge on Wall Street

Market Wire, September, 2008

BioCentury Publications, Inc. and Thomson Reuters announced that the robust lineup of companies presenting at the 15th Annual NewsMakers in the Biotech Industry conference has led the current surge in biotech stocks. The meeting convenes on Thursday, September 4, at the Millennium Broadway Hotel and Conference Center in New York City.

Collectively, the market value of the 36 presenting companies in the NewsMakers Class of 2008 stood at $49.3 billion as of last Friday, August 29, up 36 percent since January. By comparison, the NASDAQ Biotech Index and the BioCentury 100 are up 6 percent and 5 percent, respectively. Future growth is being fueled by $6.4 billion in new capital raised by this group since 2006.

Future value is determined by expected future performance, which is why NewsMakers helps investors focus on key upcoming milestones that will drive future results. The Class of 2008 will provide the latest information from pipelines that include 24 ongoing Phase III clinical trials. Beyond that, the group is running an additional 140 clinical studies, including 74 Phase II trials, 13 Phase I/II trials and 57 Phase I trials. These companies -- which are focused on pain, obesity, cancer, infectious diseases, autoimmune and cardiopulmonary disorders -- already market a combined 19 products and have nine compounds under review by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMEA), with five near-term PDUFA dates.

This pioneering conference, organized by BioCentury and Thomson Reuters, has earned Wall Street's respect for its independently selected investment stories and an open door to the Wall Street community. That's why NewsMakers has enjoyed enduring sponsorship from leading financial institutions and industry service firms, all of which recognize the value of a turf-neutral venue for the corporate and investment communities to do business.

"Premier biotechnology portfolio managers and analysts congregate at NewsMakers because they know they will see independently selected and investor-validated stories with potentially transformational milestones in key disease areas," said BioCentury Publisher Eric Pierce. "Given the current momentum of the hand-selected biotechnology group, NewsMakers is witnessing record pre-registration, including value and growth investors."

"This is an exciting time for the industry, with both the NASDAQ Biotech Index and AMEX Biotechnology Index outperforming every major index so far this quarter," said Robert Rynd, Director of Biotech Corporate Advisory Services at Thomson Reuters. "This is driven in large part by the M&A deals that have dominated the headlines. Our surveillance indicates that a number of institutions that have been dormant in the sector for some time have started to step back in, including the generalist investors that have registered to attend this year's NewsMakers conference."

With more than 850 delegates already registered, BioCentury and Thomson Reuters expect to build upon the record attendance at the 2007 conference. Last year, 700 biotechnology investors, analysts, company management teams and business development executives gathered at NewsMakers, including financial professionals representing more than $160 billion in healthcare investments, of which more than $43 billion was dedicated to biotechnology. In addition, corporate delegations included more than 50 CEOs, presidents, CFOs and COOs. They understand NewsMakers is an efficient, one-day opportunity to jump-start the fall investment season.

"We are proud of our long-term partnership with NewsMakers," said Laura Berezin, Partner at Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, this year's Gold Sponsor. "The meeting provides Cooley with superb visibility among the top decision makers on Wall Street and within the biopharma industry. It delivers tremendous value to the institutional investment community year after year."

NewsMakers Class of 2008

The following companies will present at NewsMakers. For a roster of their key upcoming inflection points and links to their websites, please visit: www.biocentury.com/NewsMakers2008 . Webcasts of company presentations can be found through direct links on individual company websites.

Ablynx N.V. (ABLX)
Affymax Inc. (AFFY)
Alexza Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALXA)
Allos Therapeutics Inc. (ALTH)
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALNY)
Amicus Therapeutics Inc. (FOLD)
Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AMLN)
Anesiva Inc. (ANSV)
Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ARNA)
Cadence Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CADX)
Celgene Corp. (CELG)
Cell Genesys Inc. (CEGE)
CV Therapeutics Inc. (CVTX)
Cytokinetics Inc. (CYTK)
Dendreon Corp. (DNDN)
Exelixis Inc. (EXEL)
GTx Inc. (GTXI)
Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc. (INFI)
Intercell AG (ICLL)
Javelin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (JAV)
LifeCycle Pharma A/S (LCP)
Medivation Inc. (MDVN)
Micromet Inc. (MITI)
Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals Inc. (MIPI)
MorphoSys AG (MOR)
Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. (NBIX)
Nile Therapeutics Inc. (NLTX)
Optimer Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OPTR)
Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. (OREX)
Poniard Pharmaceuticals Inc. (PARD)
Sequenom Inc. (SQNM)
Somaxon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (SOMX)
Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. (SNTA)
Targanta Therapeutics Corp. (TARG)
ViroPharma Inc. (VPHM)
Vivus Inc. (VVUS)