The financial market swoon of 2008 and 2009 has produced many undervalued stocks for aggressive investors to take positions in. Some fo the more attractive opportunities exist in the price-depressed stocks of biotech companies with promising technologies and good clinical prospects.

Avoiding single product risk is an important consideration in selecting investments in small biotech companies that are not yet profitable. In other words, stay away from companies whose future is dependent upon the success of a single product that is still in clinical trials. While big breakthroughs are possible for single-product companies, there are also many failures along the way; in these tough economic times, there will be little sympathy given by the financial world to product failures. Rather than depending on a single product for a home run, it is better to choose companies with strong technologies that can be applied to many different commercial opportunities.

An interesting company that appears to be dramatically undervalued is iBioPharma, Inc. This company came into existence near the beginning of the financial market meltdown as a spin-off from an older parent company. This company is not well known, so, coupled with the overall drop in the stock market, this could be an interesting value proposition for perceptive investors. Trading under the symbol IBPM, the company has proprietary technology for vaccine production which can be applied to a number of different diseases. Among the possibilities are pandemic swine flu, anthrax and human papilloma virus vaccines. Considerable funding has already been provided by the U.S. government and by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Another company to consider is GenVec, Inc. This company has developed technology for gene-based therapeutic drugs applicable to a number of diseases including cancer, age-related macular degeneration, and certain infectious diseases. Trading under the symbol GNVC, the company’s most advanced product is for advanced pancreatic cancer therapy and is in a pivotal clinical trial. The company has made significant technical progress, but its stock price has been driven down over the past nine months by general market forces.

For the bold investors, this may be a good time to pick up rare bargains. With a little research and a little luck, investment returns on well-chosen, low-priced biotech stocks could be a good personal antidote to the ailing economy. This article’s author does not own stock in either of the companies discussed herein. This article is intended for educational purposes only and should not be viewed as a recommendation to make any investment.