Stock Watch: Defeat Is The Mother Of Reinvention

Not All Change Is Good... And Strategic Contagion Can Compound Errors

Companies that are successful do not need to change their name, therapeutic area or product focus.

Stock Watch Image, Andy Smith
ANDY SMITH OFFERS A LIFE SCIENCE INVESTOR'S PERSPECTIVE ON BIOPHARMA BUSINESS

After seeing many biotech companies as an investor, I learned to ask those I was meeting for the first time about the company’s history. Companies have been known to rename themselves as a way of distancing themselves from unwanted associations. These may be entirely unwarranted, as in the case of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (until 2015 known as ISIS Pharmaceuticals, Inc.), but a long period of underperformance, for example, is more relevant for an investor to know about.

Reinventions have also been the case with some Australian biotechnology companies, such as Genetic Technologies Ltd., as mining companies...

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