21.   And the next generation of biotech companies is born as investors eagerly fund a new crop of start-ups.

22.   And there is a new focus from UT and the chamber on keeping spinoff biotech companies in town.

23.   Another biotech company, Gilead Sciences Inc. in Redwood City, is working on a different drug for CMV retinitis called cidofovir.

24.   Another company is Sequella Inc., a biotech company based in Rockville, Md.

25.   As a result, initial public offerings of biotech companies dried up and venture capital went elsewhere.

26.   As the hearing ended, Harkin expressed alarm that biotech companies were claiming licenses and patents to human stem cells.

27.   Assuming the Corixa-Coulter deal closes, and is deemed successful, it could encourage other mid-tier biotech companies to fuse.

28.   At Lilly, Levin worked under William Young, a chief engineer who would later go to Genentech, a California biotech company.

29.   At the same time biotech companies were busy in their labs, the major drug companies were even busier working on blockbuster drugs for the future.

30.   At the same time, New England showed a modest decline in the number of public biotech companies.