Tiny Northwest Biotherapeutics aims to dominate brain cancer

By Ransdell Pierson NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ten years ago, cash-strapped biotechnology company Northwest Biotherapeutics Inc was down to three employees and one week from closing its doors when a financial backer came forward at the annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference. By 2007, that backer, Linda Powers, had become chairman of the Maryland-based company. A venture capitalist, Powers remains one of its largest shareholders and has invested more than $20 million in the company and its experimental drugs for brain cancer and inoperable tumors. "Through two major recessions and pummeling in the capital markets, we've chosen to keep our focus." Now worth close to $300 million, Northwest's stock has jumped 75 percent this year to the $7 range.