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Optimer Pharmaceuticals, based in San Diego and Seattle Genetics, based in Seattle are companies with big losses but big market caps.

As the biotech and biopharmaceutical industries grow in economic importance, driven mainly by investment capital, the credit risk factors associated with these research firms are coming into clearer focus.

May 27, 2011 was a big day for Optimer Pharmaceucticals, a seemingly high-risk biopharmaceutical company based in San Diego, California.  That was the day that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the company's leading product candidate -- a drug called DIFICID