Remember Plexxikon? The Berkeley, CA-based company had a lot of talent for structural biology-based drug design, an impressive new treatment for melanoma, and a strong management team.
Two years ago, nobody on Wall Street cared one whit. Plexxikon flirted with the idea of going public, found little interest, and sold itself off to Japan-based Daiichi Sankyo for a more than 10-fold return on investment. It was a poster child for how dead the biotech IPO market was in 2010 and 2011.