History has a way of repeating itself—not for the first time, investors have been hoodwinked

This time it's gene therapies

Oct 17, 2023

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British Biotech hoodwinked investors (allegedly) in the 1990s

Below is a previous post telling the story of my experience working at British Biotech in the 1990s. The whole thing was splashed all over The Times newspaper at the time, leading to British Biotech’s final demise.

Why gene therapy investors are about to lose their shirts

Hedley Rees

February 27, 2023

Why gene therapy investors are about to lose their shirts

Not for the first time, investors behave like sheep The dot-com bubble is a warning from history that investors can behave like sheep, and end up as lemmings, tumbling off a very high cliff. For those who don’t know, the dot-com bubble was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, between 1995 and its peak in March 2000. I was working for

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This is an extract:

“Blood on the Carpet: ‘A Very Bitter Pill’

So it was with my previous employer, British Biotech. I joined them in 1996, as head of logistics, moving after 16 years at Bayer Manufacturing in the UK. When I joined, British Biotech’s share price was £36, making them bigger, by market capitalisation, than W H Smiths and Rail track. When I left to move to Vernalis, the share price was 15p (pence).

If you have time to watch the video, please do, as it is also a fascinating account of how the human dimension plays out in every area of business life. If you don’t have time, skip below and I will summarise.”

Moral of the story

The moral of the story is

INSIDE PHARMA