August 24, 2000

Investors are pouring money into biotechnology industry in last year, changing dynamics of industry that has long relied on deep pockets of pharmaceutical companies to bring its technology and drugs to market; biotech companies do not need drug companies' money as badly as they once did--but drug companies still want to license biotech drugs; as balance of power shifts from pharmaceutical giants to biotech companies, like OSI Pharmaceuticals, smaller companies are able to arrange licensing deals that leave them with larger shares of profits, and in some cases, direct roles in selling drugs they develop; in first half of 2000, biotechnology companies raised $22.1 billion from public and private financings, well above $12 billion raised in all of 1999 and nearly triple $8.1 billion raised in 1998; big drug companies are courting OSI Pharmaceuticals now that Pfizer Inc gave back its full rights to one of their drug combinations as part of antitrust agreement to acquire Warner-Lambert; OSI chief executive Colin Goddard comments; graph; photos (M)

Revenge has become easier to act upon, with Internet to hide behind; Web sites for virtual vengence give vindictive sorts plenty of ways to get back at objects of their disaffection; some revenge sites simply offer forum for well-targeted gripes; other less savory sites encourage people to upload unflattering pictures, to ask for suggestions on how best to take revenge or simply to vent in way that would never be done in person; photos (M)

New York Knicks, Seattle SuperSonics and Los Angeles Lakers are trying to resuscitate four-team, 13-player trade that fell apart when Detroit Pistons pulled out; deal would have sent Patrick Ewing to Seattle and brought Los Angeles backup center Glen Rice to New York (M)

Surveys by American Petroleum Institute and US Energy Information Administration show sudden drop in crude oil inventories, sending home heating oil prices to their highest in a decade; on New York Mercantile Exchange, price of crude oil for October delivery jumped 80 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $32.02 a barrel, while price of heating oil for September delivery rises 5.26 cents, or 5.8 percent, to 95.61 cents a gallon; Clinton administration is again mentioning possibility of using oil from government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help push prices lower; connections of Republican ticket of George W Bush and Dick Cheney to oil industry will sharpen focus on issue this fall, especially if it is cold; Clinton says he will discuss high oil prices this weekend when he meets with Nigeria's Pres Olusegun Obasanjo, member of OPEC (M)

Writer Vivian Gornick and colleagues have proposed building House of Elder Artists, 'un-retirement' home for aging female writers, artists and community activists; nonprofit residence and cultural center in Manhattan would have 100 rental apartments, many reserved for people of low to modest means; photos (M)