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OC's biotech industry - strictly defined as those companies involved in manufacturing durgs through bio-engineering - are generating meager revenue, little or nothing in profit, and are not impressing some observers. But what the heck, the Street is enchanted. For much of the 1990s, OC's biotech stocks languished, reflecting the NASDAQ Biotech Index, which hovered for most of the decade around 400 or 500, but beginning in mid-- December, it began a run-up to approximately 1,500, an all-time high.
A half-dozen small, publicly traded OC biotech companies have also enjoyed a hefty increase in their stock value, even though only one of them posted a profit recently and two have no revenue.
Irvine-based NeoTherapeutics has seen its stock double to 20 in the past three months. even though its latest report for the nine months ended Sept. 30 showed no revenue and its net loss increased 78% to $13.8 million.
NeoTherapeutics in developing a drug, Neotropfin, to help victims of Alzheimer's and is working on other drus for aging, stroke, Parkinson's disease, depression and obesity, among other areas.
"Investors are looking to the promise of the future, the ultimate approval of the drug and the market's that out there in Alzheimer's is untouched," said Sam Gluko, CFO of NeoTherapeutics. "They're calculating what our positions will be."