Mardi Gras

Five biotech financings closed on Tuesday, allowing the industry to fatten its reserves by $60.7 million. Two were IPOs - CV Therapeutics and Viropharma - which were scaled down considerably from the original filings. Even so, the new issues received a tepid response in the aftermarket. VPHM closed Friday at the $7 offering price, while CVTX finished the week at $7.50, down from the $8 IPO price.

Also provocative is that two companies that had pulled follow-on deals earlier this year - Pharmacyclics (PCYC) and DepoTech (DEPO) - have opted for private financing. PCYC raised $8.1 million in a private deal, while DEPO plans to raise $20.3 million in December. One also can't help but notice that the BioCentury 100 Price Level Index is off 10 percent over the last seven weeks...