The fat cats: companies with — and investors in — clinical-stage assets on big pharma’s acquisition radars, or management teams with a strong track record. The paupers: earlier-stage groups for whom the music stopped before proof of concept.

Capitalism drives a widening wedge between haves and have-nots. Investors and companies on the right side of the line “can attract funds, talent and entrepreneurs,” 

Those biotechs and investors left behind — including the early-stage, the new and the unlucky — must streamline, refinance on less favorable terms, merge or shut down. “Financing early-stage innovation has been very challenging,”