Development-Stage IPOs in 2002

Most of the IPOs successfully completed on US exchanges this year were companies that were already revenue positive, or even profitable. Companies like Hexal AG division Eon Labs Inc. , American BioScience Inc. 's American Pharmaceutical Partners Inc. and CTI Molecular Imaging Inc. —which have achieved the largest IPO valuations this year—all have healthy businesses based on real sales from real products [See Deal], [See Deal], [See Deal]. But some investors are still willing to take more of a flyer—albeit at modest prices and with companies at least close to fulfilling their product ambitions. To isolate these, in the chart below, we've ranked the US IPOs to date in 2002 by price-to-sales—the higher the P/S, the greater an investor's bet on the future.

By this logic, the highest anticipated value company—though one of the lower-value companies in market cap—was monitoring device company HealtheTech...