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Late yesterday, drug maker and consumer healthcare giant Johnson and Johnson announced that it was buying Mentor, a Santa Barbara, CA maker of skin care products, liposuction equipment and MemoryGel breast implants. According to industry analyst the $1.07 billion that J&J will spend to purchase the company “represents a giant premium for Mentor.” Mentor will become a stand-alone unit of J&J’s Ethicon a leading supplier of sutures, mesh and other surgical products. The cosmetic surgery and anti-aging markets are huge and are expected t to grow as the baby boomer generation continues to age.

J&J is on something of a buying spree and will continue to buy specialty companies to to offset possible losses that may from a weak drug pipeline of its pharmaceutical division. In November, the company purchased Omrix for $438 million, a biopharmaceutical that develops biosurgical and passive immunity products. The deal is expected to close this month.

Unlike most other pharmaceutical companies, J&J has been able to successfully run a diversified conglomerate company that specializes in both pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare products. It is a cash rich company that has a reputation for treating its employees very well! Who said that “beauty is only skin deep?”

Until next time

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!!!

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U.S. regulators have delayed a decision on approval of an antibiotic from Johnson & Johnson and Basilea saying they need further audits of clinical sites, the two companies said on Wednesday.

Ceftobiprole, a broad-based spectrum antibiotic targeted mainly against infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), is Basilea's lead product and the news hit the Swiss biotech shares, which plummeted 27 percent.

In a so-called complete response letter on the drug's approval application, for complicated skin and skin structure infections, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it was unable to review the clinical data submitted with the NDA until issues of data integrity had been resolved. The FDA has asked J&J to conduct additional audit work of clinical investigator sites and to address specific questions related to site monitoring."

Ceftobiprole is approved in Canada and Switzerland and has been recommended for approval in the European Union. A new application in the United States is planned within a year.

Late last week, FDA rejected an NDA for another antibiotic, iclaprim, being developed by Arpida, another Swiss company. It has been a bad two weeks at FDA for approval of new antibiotics—drugs that we desperately need.

Until next time….

Happy Thanksgiving

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Can anything else go wrong at Amgen? FDA regulators said on Thursday that they were reviewing the results from two recent studies that provided more evidence of serious risks for some cancer patients treated with anemia drugs, sold by Amgen Inc (Epogen & Aranesp) and Johnson & Johnson (Procrit). For those you who don’t know, J&J licensed Procrit from Amgen so there is really little difference between J&J’s Procrit and Amgen’s Epogen. Aranesp is a second generation, longer-acting version of Amgen’s Epogen.

In the studies, researchers used  Aranesp or Procrit to elevate a patient's level of hemoglobin to 12 grams per deciliter or higher, although many patients did not reach that level. Current warnings on the drugs say hemoglobin levels should not rise above 12 for patients with cancer. The FDA said the studies showed that patients with breast or advanced cervical cancer who were treated with the drugs died sooner, or had more rapid tumor growth, than similar patients who were not given the medications.

Based on these new data, it is almost certain that the agency will insist on label changes to include strong warnings regarding the use of EPO drugs to treat oncology patients. Maybe there is a black box warning in Amgen’s future?

Amgen's stock hit a new 52-week low on Thursday, dipping down to $45.25 and closing at $45.69. It has traded as high as $76.95 in the last year but has taken a beating with the decline of its anemia-drug franchise.

The similarities between Amgen and Pfizer are becoming more apparent each day. Both are largest companies in their respective sectors (biotech and pharma) and have relied almost exclusively on blockbuster franchises (and weak pipelines) to bolster their stock prices! As you may recall, both companies have laid off large numbers of employees over the past year to cut costs. Maybe bigger (biggest) is not always better?

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!

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I hate to be the bearer of bad news (don’t kill the messenger) but 2007 has been rife with corporate downsizing and job layoffs. According to a post at Fierce Biotech, jobs cuts were primarily driven by “Concerns about patent expirations, falling sales due to drug safety concerns, redundancy from acquisitions and a general need to streamline operations”. The companies that have “laid-off” the most workers are:  

1. Pfizer-10,000 
2. Astra Zeneca-7,600 
3. Bayer-6,100 
4. Johnson & Johnson
5. 5,000 Amgen-2,600

Companies that did not make the list but have quietly been laying off workers or freezing jobs include GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

It is not a good time to be looking for a job in the pharma or biotech industries. That said, there is always hope and let’s “hope” that 2008 is a better year for both industries.

Until next time….

Good Luck (you will need it) and Good Job Hunting!

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