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Ralph T. King Jr. Monday, April 24, 1995 TO WALL STREET, most of the biotechnology industry is abatch of long-shot, underfinanced wannabe drug makers --and it is no place to put your hard- earned money. Yet big pharmaceutical companies are lining up to pour money into the biotechs. Do they know something the Street doesn't? Drug companies, of course, have long kept a close eye on what the biotechs are doing, investing in a few that seemed particularly promising. But lately their interest has turned red hot. Deals between pharmaceutical giants and biotech firms more than doubled in value last year and numbered nearly 200. Drug companies, especially European ones, are combing for prospects and promoting their partnership appeal with an ardor that astounds biotech executives, who are used to having to fight for every dollar of funding. Chiron Corp. of Emeryville (Top 100 No. 74) was swept off its feet in November when Switzerland's Ciba-Geigy AG bought a half interest for $2.1 billion, a 96 percent premium over the stock price. In January, Affymax NV of Palo Alto found four eager bidders for its novel yet unproven drug- discovery technology. The company, for which earnings are still a fond dream, sold itself to Glaxo PLC for more than half a billion dollars. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn