Most businesspeople in Delaware know little about Incyte.
The pharmaceutical development company, based in DuPont research space at the Experimental Station has quietly built a portfolio of promising drugs while posting big losses.
Earlier in the week, the company posted its first quarter earnings and Wall Street liked what it saw. A drug used to treat a bone marrow disorder is generating revenues and other drugs in the pipeline show promise.
Incyte shares rose about $2, before pulling back a bit on Friday.
The stock market value of Incyte now totals an impressive $2.8 billion. Check out the latest value here: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=INCY
It was a different story up the road at AstraZeneca.
CEO David Brennan is retiring after struggling with a changing market that has its blockbusters moving toward generic status and more than a few misfires in moving promising drugs to the market. The result has been a rolling wave of cutbacks that makes life tough on staff.
Prior to heading to London to head AstraZeneca, he had been a well-liked executive in its Fairfax-based U.S. Business.
Brennan’s, whose CEO skills were generally held in high regard, also headed a company that is among the smaller fry among the big pharma companies, a tough position in a rapidly consolidating industry. Still, AZ still carries a stock market value of $56 billion and tough decisions by Brennan and his team have kept that number from sliding further.
Casino earnings perk up
We got a little insight into the strategy of casinos in the face of growing competition.
Both Dover Downs Gaming and Nevada-based Boyd Gaming, owner of The Borgata in Atlantic City reported improved earnings.
In both cases, a combination of gaming revenues, milder weather, food and hotel sales and cuts in marketing and operating expenses boosted the performance of the casinos.
Both Boyd and Dover have fierce competition looming on the horizon. Dover continues to see expansion in its market area that will include the Maryland Live casino outside of Baltimore, a massive slots-only site. The Borgata, long the upscale casino leader in AC, saw the opening of The Revel Resort on the upper end of the boardwalk.
The Borgata will also be squeezed on the lower end of its niche by the renovation of the former Trump Marina into the Golden Nugget, which has done a top to bottom renovation that includes new restaurant
That would seem to suggest that both may have to boost marketing expenses as competition intensifies. The Borgata has already announced plans to spend $50 million to renovate rooms.
Bloom in April
After a few delays, energy server maker Bloom will break ground on a new plant in Newark on Monday.
Executives of the company will join both of the state’s U.S. Senators, Gov. Jack Markell, University of Delaware President Patrick Harker and others at the event.
The facility on the University of Delaware’s new Science, Technology and Research Campus will bring an estimated 1,500 manufacturing, supply chain and construction jobs to the region. The campus site was purchased by UD following the closing of the Chrysler plant.
Bloom manufactures fuel cells that convert natural gas to electricity. The technology has its roots in the Mars space program, which has since been abandoned.
In order to land Bloom, the state of Delaware and Delmarva Power agreed to a deal that places Bloom servers at Delmarva substation locations. The electricity put back into the grid by the cells will count towards Delmarva’s alternative energy requirements.
Bye Newt
Finally, New Gingrich’s Delaware strategy did not work out.
On Tuesday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, won a landslide win over Gingrich, despite the former House speaker camping out in the state, with Romney stopping by once and giving a shout out to unpopular former Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell.
That led to pleas by some for a kind of a protest vote for Gingrich in an attempt to make “Delaware matter” in the process of electing a president.
While Republicans are clearly unified behind Romney at this point, the question centers on the depth of their support in a state that seems likely to remain “blue” in November. – Doug Rainey
