Biotech godfather mulls investors' 'collapse of confidence'

The "godfather" of the UK's biotech industry has a dose of bitter news for his colleagues in drug development. Investors have suffered a "collapse of confidence" in the country's biotech companies brought on by high risk and fast cash burn, said Peter Fellner, a key figure behind Celltech and Acambis. And to win them back the drug developers have to do a better job managing their cash and advancing new therapies that have a solid chance of winning approval in the U.S. But don't look for any quick turnarounds in sentiment.

"I don't subscribe to the view that the sector is dead but I envisage a number of years of lag, maybe even five years or more," he told the Financial Times. "There has been a collapse of confidence."

- read the article from the Financial Times