A past bubble, in which the companies as a group lost money, still produced a couple of life-saving drugs.

Judged as of 2025-10-06. The claim refers to a past industrial bubble (in context, the 1990s biotech bubble) in which the companies as a group lost money but which still produced life-saving drugs. True: historical or industry analyses show that a bubble of this kind, in which the sector's companies collectively lost money, yielded at least a couple (two or more) of drugs widely regarded as life-saving. Mostly true: the bubble did yield such drugs, but there is a minor imprecision, e.g. the sector as a whole was roughly break-even rather than clearly loss-making, or the drug count differs in a detail. Mixed: the drugs are real, but tying them to the bubble era or the claim that the group lost money is only partly supported. Mostly false: the sector's collective losses or the drugs' origin in that bubble are substantially misrepresented. False: no such drugs came out of the bubble, or the companies as a group were clearly profitable.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Amgen, Inc. Encyclopedia.com (Gale reference entry) · 30 November 1998

   “The largest independent biotechnology company in the United States, Amgen owes its transformation mostly to two gene-spliced drugs, Neupogen and Epogen.”

2. E2 Amgen History Amgen Inc. · 12 November 2020

   “On June 1, 1989, the FDA approves EPOGEN® (epoetin alfa). EPOGEN® is named Product of the Year, by Fortune magazine.”

3. E3 Pharmaceutical Firms and the Transition to Biotechnology: A Study in Strategic Innovation Business History Review (Cambridge University Press) · 4 July 1998

   “By that date, total product sales had reached nearly $6 billion, but a survey of 1,231 companies indicated that on balance they had lost $3.4 billion in the previous year.”

4. E4 For Biotech, a Loss of Patience and Funding Los Angeles Times · 22 November 1998

   “The problem is that only a few of the nation's estimated 1,300 biotech companies are profitable. Most survive from one financing to the next based on investor hopes that one day they'll hit it big.”

E3 cites a survey in which 1,231 biotech companies together lost $3.4 billion in one year despite nearly $6 billion in product sales. E4 reports that in 1998 only a few of about 1,300 US biotech companies were profitable. Together these support the claim that the sector as a whole lost money. E1 and E2 show that the biotech wave produced at least two important drugs, Amgen's Neupogen and Epogen (Epogen was approved in 1989). However, no source calls these drugs life-saving or places them within a defined "bubble" period, so the link between the drugs and the bubble is only partly supported.