Biotech Firms Seen as Targets for Purchase by Big Drug Makers : Conference: Speaker notes research advantage for pharmaceutical companies facing expiration of patents.

COSTA MESA — Major pharmaceutical companies will be scouting to buy small biotechnology firms in the next two years, an industry expert predicted Wednesday.

Exclusive patents for many of the drugs produced by the 25 largest pharmaceutical companies expire in 1995, and they are looking for new products, said Richard Keatinge, a partner in Keatinge-Seaton Communications, a San Diego marketing company that specializes in biotechnology clients.

“The biotechnology industry is slowly becoming the research arm of major pharmaceutical companies,” he said.

Keatinge spoke at a Costa Mesa gathering of the Southern California chapter of the Business-Professional Advertising Assn., which invited experts to talk about the outlook in 1993 for residential housing, computers, consumer electronics, publishing and the environmental-products industry.

Keatinge prefaced his prediction with some statistics on how many biotechnology companies, as of Wednesday morning, have pending plans to go public--10--or issue secondary stock offerings--12--to raise money.

“These companies are driven by access to capital,” Keatinge said. “The major pharmaceutical companies can afford to pay for clinical trials, and they’re the ones that have a global marketing reach.”

Another speaker proclaimed that the computer industry’s slump is over. Bill Conlin, president of computer peripherals maker CalComp Inc. in Anaheim, said demand will be driven by new technology, especially in the areas of mass storage, animation and simulation.

CalComp’s marketing strategy has evolved with consumer sophistication, Conlin said. The company is now contacting potential buyers directly instead of relying on distributors or dealers.

A sector that will be hot this year is the battery market, said Joe Carcone, vice president of Sanyo Energy Corp., a subsidiary of Japan’s Sanyo Electronics and operator of a factory in Mexico. Carcone said many new consumer electronics products--from cellular phones to laptop computers--require batteries.

Another growth industry is environmental products, which is benefiting from the industrialization of less-developed countries, said Anne Anderson, director of corporate communications for Irvine-based Wahlco Environmental, which makes devices to control air pollution and increase power efficiency.

Publishing will gain because of a renewed consumer confidence, said Jim Haughey, vice president of economics and research for Boston-based Cahners Publishing, which produces 80 special-interest magazines. He advised the audience to keep an eye on reports coming out now about increased sales of automobiles, houses and consumer products during October, November and December last year.

Finally, housing resales will continue to rise in 1993, one real estate company predicts. The company is “glad the elections are over,” said Carol Beekman, director of corporate communications at Coldwell Banker, which has its national headquarters in Mission Viejo. “People who were waiting to buy a home are now willing to move ahead.”