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Biotechnology in Capital Market First 20 Years (1980-2000)
The first biotechnology company in USA to make an initial public offering (IPO) in the capital market was Genentech (San Francisco, USA), which made an offer of $ 35 million at the rate of $ 35 per share. This share soared to $ 88 within the first 20 minutes and closed at the end of the day at $ 56 per share, thus giving the company a valuation of $ 400 million. Similarly, in March 1981, Cetus's gross IPO was $ 120 million giving a valuation of approximately $ 500 million to this company.

However, this trend in USA did not continue later in 1980s and 1990s. The average IPO raised by an individual company during 1980-2000 did not exceed $ 20-30 million per year, although the total capital raised due to biotechnology business improved significantly due to increase in the number of biotechnology companies.

In the year 1986 (best year in the biotechnology business in 1980s), the US biotechnology industry raised $ 900 million (all companies together), which steadily improved over the years, reaching a level of several billion dollars per year during 1990s. However, in general, biotechnology industry did not attract investors very much during 1990s, except towards the end of the 20th century. For instance, in the year 1999, the share price of Tularik (a premier biotechnology company) improved from $ 11 to 13 per share in October, 1999, to . $ 90 in February, 2000, and the company valuation improved from $ 500 million to $ 4 billion during the same period. Other companies, impressed by the performance of Tularik, suddenly began filing for IPOs, so that the year 2000 was a record year for biotechnology financing, with 63 IPOs completed and $ 5.4 billion (with an average IPO proceeds of an individual company rising from $ 30 million to $ 85 million) raised for biotechnology industry.

As many as 37 new biotechnology companies were floated in the area of genomics research alone, although most of them may not be able to sustain and therefore may merge with or acquired by other successful companies. The revival of biotechnology industry was also witnessed in Europe, as suggested by several European biotechnological companies (e.g., Neurotech, Transgene, NicOx, Cytomix), which raised a total of $ 194 million in the month of May, 2001 alone.
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