With “apathetic” attitudes helping drive down life science industry stocks as part of a general market spiral, Quintiles CEO Tom Pike took to the airways Wednesday evening to defend his company and the biotech-related sector.

“The mood here is apathetic,” Adam Feuerestin of TheStreet,com reported from the big J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco earlier this week. “There isn’t a lot of panic or even depression over sinking biotech stock prices. No one is predicting the end of the world like in 2008. But when I ask health care investors here how they’re feeling, I get a lot of shoulder shrugs.”

Quintiles (NYSE: Q) in a big way symbolizes what’s going on. Stock in the world’s largest life science services company has given back most of the gains made over the past year. Shares closed at $63.76 Wednesday. “Q” had sold for as high as $80.45 in 2015.

Q traded up slightly Thursday.

Shares in Raleigh-based INC Research (Nasdaq: INCR) also have dropped, closing at $42.21 Thursday. It has ranged from $22.17 to $51.68 over the past year. However, its shares climbed nearly 5 percent in afternoon trading.

Pike, however, told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that Quintiles and other contract research organizations is strong and expects a good 2016.

“We really understand this science well, we have some really innovative drugs coming and because of that we are seeing an attractive approval environment. And because of that we think 2016 for a business like us, and Quintiles in particular, can be a strong year,” Pike said.

Pike’s defense came just before a research firm published a new report indicating seven years of growth are ahead for the CRO industry.

The CRO business, which includes firms such as Quintiles, INC Research, PPD and others with strong N.C. roots, will grow to a $45.2 billion a year business by 2014, according to San Francisco-based Grand View Research.

The report was issued Thursday.

The CRO industry generated some $27 billion in 2014.

Pike pointed out that drug companies raised over $74 billion in new capital last year and added that the U.S. approved more drugs in any year since 1996. He stressed that innovations continue to be made and some terrific drugs are coming.

He als noted that an aging society and the lack of effective treatments for numerous diseases means there’s a lot of work to be done.

Cramer, the host of the “Mad Money” show, has interviewed in the past. This time, he suggested that Quintiles “could be worth buying into weakness, as long as investors have patience and are willing to build a position slowly,” according to TheStreet.com’s recap of the interview.

“Quintiles is the top contract research organization that helps drug companies manage their clinical trials. The good news about this stock is that it has virtually no exposure to the world’s economies. So, no matter how weak the Chinese or U.S. economy gets, investors will still buy stocks in medicine and pharma industry.”

Read more at:

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/13/cramer-remix-this-stock-could-be-a-heart-breaker.html

And:

http://www.thestreet.com/story/13393484/1/jim-cramer-s-top-takeaways-quintiles-and-match-com.html

Pike said despite the political and economic backdrops, drug companies raised over $74 billion in new capital last year. Those companies aren’t worth much unless their products are in the clinics being tested and getting approved.

Pike continued that the U.S. had more drug approvals last year than in any other year since 1996. He said there are real innovations being made and some terrific drugs coming down the line, which creates a huge opportunity for Quintiles and the entire drug industry.

Pike said that with our aging society and tons of ailments out there without effective treatments, there is still a lot of work to be done.

http://www.thestreet.com/story/13393484/1/jim-cramer-s-top-takeaways-quintiles-and-match-com.html