From new drugs to the latest electronics, tech companies are continuing to make advances
For TIME's third annual Hot Company list, we talked to venture capitalists, industry experts and entrepreneurs to identify the European technology firms with the most innovative products and services and the most promising business models. We looked for those with the greatest future potential, not present hype.
Some are well established, others are still below the radar screen. Here are our picks:
BIOTECH
Biotech — the combination of life sciences, high tech and research — is now the driving force behind progress in healthcare. More than 50% of new medications are being developed by biotech companies, most of which did not exist 10 to 15 years ago.
Acambis Public company based in Cambridge, England • CEO: John Brown
• What it does: Researches and manufactures vaccines to prevent and treat infectious diseases.
• Why it's hot: A new $428 million contract to produce 155 million doses of smallpox vaccine for the U.S. government in 2002 helped Acambis generate headlines and join the U.K.'s FTSE-250 index. www.acambis.com
Actelion*
Public company based in Allschwil, Switzerland • CEO: Jean-Paul Clozel
• What it does: Develops new drugs for diseases not being treated effectively, based on research into the endothelium, the single layer of cells separating blood vessels from the blood stream.
• Why it's hot: Last November the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Tracleer, a drug Actelion developed for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Among the first of a new class of drugs called endothelin receptor antagonists, Tracleer also received positive reviews in a study published in the March 21 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
www.actelion.com
Ark Therapeutics Private company based in London, England • CEO: Nigel Parker
• What it does: Develops gene-based medicines for the treatment of cancer, vascular and circulatory system diseases.
• Why it's hot: Ark, which is planning a stock flotation in a few months, has six new products in the late stages of development. www.arktherapeutics.com
Astex Technology Private company based in Cambridge, England • CEO: Timothy Haines
• What it does: Uses X-ray crystallography as a screening tool to discover new drugs.
• Why it's hot: In late 2001, Astex revealed the 3-D structure of a key enzyme involved in drug metabolism, a discovery that is expected to lead to better understanding of the way that drugs work in the body. It has inked collaboration deals with big pharmaceutical companies such as Aventis and AstraZeneca.
www.astex-technology.com
MURAT TUEREMIS/LAIF for TIME
Charles Cohen
Cambridge AntibodyTechnology* (CAT)
Public company based in Melbourn, England • CEO: Peter Chambré
• What it does: Develops human monoclonal antibodies as treatment for disease.
• Why it's hot: Seven human therapeutic antibodies developed by CAT are in trials, including CAT-152, which aims to prevent excessive postoperative scarring in glaucoma surgery. It has alliances with the likes of Abbott Labs and Human Genome Sciences to commercialize human monoclonal antibody-based products. www.cambridgeantibody.com
Celltech Public company based in Slough, England • Group Chief Executive:
Peter Fellner
• What it does: Focuses on treatments for immune and inflammatory disorders and cancer, encompassing both injectable antibodies and orally delivered small molecules.
• Why it's hot: Celltech has a profitable pharmaceutical business and seven products in advanced development, including drugs that can be used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease.
www.celltechgroup.com
Cellzome Private company based in Heidelberg, Germany • CEO: Charles Cohen
• What it does: Specializing in functional proteomics, Cellzome is able to characterize and unravel the protein interactions in cells within a specific molecular context such as the progression of disease or the action of a drug.
• Why it's hot: In a January article in Nature magazine, Cellzome scientists — in collaboration with other researchers — were the first to publish a comprehensive map of protein complexes in a whole organism, yeast. This breakthrough is expected to help researchers more fully understand the roles of individual proteins. www.cellzome.com
Epigenomics Private company based in Berlin, Germany • CEO: Alexander Olek
• What it does: Its technology promises to make it possible to diagnose, at a very early stage, the presence, the exact type and the treatment opportunities for cancer — from studying a drop of blood or urine.
• Why it's hot: Epigenomics detects dna methylation patterns, the "on" and "off" signals for genes, and creates a digitized readout for each tissue. Methylation patterns can be correlated with kidney, prostate and blood cancer. As growing cancer secretes dna, methylation profiles can be obtained from body fluids, making biopsies unnecessary. www.epigenomics.com
Immuno-Designed Molecules Private company based in Paris, France • CEO: Jean-Loup Romet-Lemonne
• What it does: Developing a new family of products called Cell Drugs that boost the immune system in patients weakened through diseases like cancer.
• Why it's hot: These Cell Drugs offer new treatment options for patients with ovarian, skin, bladder and prostate cancers. Earlier this year IDM struck a partnership with Sanofi-Synthélabo for the development and marketing of idd3, idm's Cell Drug for the treatment of melanoma.
www.idm-biotech.com
NicOx Public company based in Sophia Antipolis, France • CEO: Michele Garufi
• What it does: Exploits the therapeutic potential of nitric oxide, which plays a critical role in a range of human biological functions. The technology grafts a nitric oxide-releasing structure onto existingdrugs to increase potency and reduce side effects.
• Why it's hot: NicOx wants to
expand its applications from treating pain and inflammation to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. It completed the largest secondary offering in the European biotech sector in 2001. www.nicox.com
Qiagen Public company based in Venlo, the Netherlands • CEO: Metin Colpan
• What it does: Provides the enabling technologies and products for the separation, purification and handling of nucleic acids.
• Why it's hot: Qiagen's products are sold to academic institutions as well as pharmaceutical and biotech companies in more than 32 countries. Now the company wants to expand into commercial markets such as dna sequencing, genomics, genetic vaccination and gene therapy.
www.qiagen.com
RiboTargets Private company based in Cambridge, England • CEO: Simon Sturge
• What it does: Focuses on novel ways to combat cancer as well as bacterial and viral infections.
• Why it's hot: Using high-tech tools the company can rapidly screen drug candidates for both proteins and nucleic acids then use the information to design drugs that act at the molecular level.
www.ribotargets.com
Serono Public company based in Geneva, Switzerland • CEO: Ernesto Bertarelli
• What it does: Develops products to treat infertility, multiple sclerosis and growth deficiencies for children and adults, and hiv-associated wasting diseases.
• Why it's hot: With revenues of $1.38 billion, Serono is the third-largest biotech company in the world.
www.serono.com
Shire Pharmaceuticals Group Public company based in Basingstoke, England • CEO: Rolf Stahel
• What it does: Develops products for central nervous-system disorders, oncology and infectious diseases.
• Why it's hot: Shire, which covers the specialty pharmaceutical and biological sectors, had 2001 revenues of almost $900 million and has more than 20 projects in the pipeline.
www.shire.com
SEMICONDUCTORS
The global slump has been rocky for the business of making chips and microprocessors that power a broad array of electronic devices. But innovation continues.
Adelante Technologies Private company based in Leuven, Belgium • CEO: Karsten Popp
• What it does: Founded in June 2001, through the merger between Belgium's Frontier Design and the digital signal processing (dsp) division of Philips Semiconductors, the company specializes in system-on-a-chip embedded signal processing for the wireless, consumer infotainment and networking sectors.
• Why it's hot: New Internet-based features for wireless handheld devices like video require high capacity without any increase in power consumption. Adelante Technologies tackles this problem by combining application-specific co-processor technology with a high-performance dsp core.
www.adelantetech.com
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