CAUTION: CEO In Denial?

A biotech company caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. They do have some substantial customers using products so it might take time to see how things fall in to place. Certain elements of biotech have not been untouched by the economy as well. BD

Over the last few weeks, Valley VC firms have bombarded portfolio companies with memos and presentations designed to soften them up for the coming cram-down round.* Companies that got the message are frantically slashing costs and readjusting valuation expectations. But at least one Valley CEO isn't. BusinessWeek's Spencer Ante spoke to Gajus Worthington, the CEO of chip-maker Fluidigm, whose company is on track to burn through its capital by the end of next year. Is Worthington following the VC firms' advice now that its IPO has fallen through? No, sir! It's pedal-to-the-metal for Fluidigm.

*Don't know what a cramdown round is? That's when your VC partner informs you that the valuation of your next round will be 1/5th of the valuation of your last round and that the equity you've sweated for for the last two years might someday buy you a Cherry Coke. Your VC will pretend to be depressed about this unfortunate set of circumstances.

“Every day, we strive to enhance our customers’ success through product innovation that continually drives down their cost per experiment. Our systems, including IFCs, instrumentation, and software, allow scientists to make incomparable leaps in productivity. Our product lines include the TOPAZ® system for protein crystallization, introduced in 2002; the BioMark™ Real-Time PCR System for gene expression profiling and genotyping, launched in December 2006. The Company's patent portfolio consists of over 80 issued US patents and over 240 pending patents internationally, including those licensed from Caltech, Harvard, and University of Alabama.”

October 7, 2008
Stanford University Uses Fluidigm Integrated Fluidic Circuits to Help Develop Maternal Blood Test for Fetal Chromosomal Abnormalities

Scripps Research Institute Scientists Find Structure of Critical Ebola Virus Protein