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For the past several days, the rumor mill has been rampant with suggestions that UK-based Shire may acquire Cubist, a publicly traded Massachusetts-based biotechnology company that sells Cubicin, an antibiotic indicated for the treatment of certain infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Rumor has it that Shire approached Cubist about a month ago with a $44.5-a-share proposal ($2.0 billion) and the pair have been in talks about a deal ever since. Last week, Shire announced that it had entered into a deal to acquire private-held Advanced BioHealing for $750 million. Connecticut-based Advanced BioHealing markets and develops products to enhance wound healing and treat diabetic foot infections in patients with diabetes. Shire’s acquisition of both companies would provide it with a substantial US presence in the antibacterial treatment and diabetes markets.

While Cubist may be a good “fit” for Shire, it is not clear whether or not the company will prevail in its takeover bid. Last month, Cubist settled a patent dispute Teva Pharmaceuticals over Cubicin, which lessened the threat of generic competition by the Israeli drug maker. This sparked speculation among a number of Wall Street analysts that other pharmaceutical companies including AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson who are themselves facing generic competition, may consider acquiring Cubist in an attempt to add new antibiotics to their antibacterial portfolios. 

This is not the first time that analysts have speculated that Cubicin may be ripe for acquisition. Almost two years ago, word-on-the-street had it that Novartis may acquire the company. Nevertheless, Cubist is one of the few remaining publicly-traded biotechnology companies that specialize in new antibacterial drug discovery. Its potential acquisition by a big pharma company may signal the end of innovative drug discovery in the antibiotics discovery space. Here’s hoping that Cubist remains independent!

Until next time...

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

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The loss of patent protection and a decline in revenues for a number of blockbuster brand name antibiotics has caused many big pharmaceutical companies to exit the antibacterial drug discovery market. The three remaining big pharma companies still actively engaged in antibacterial research are GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and Novartis (all European owned companies).

A new report by UK-based Datamonitor entitled “Forecast Insight: Antibacterials” predicts that antibiotic sales revenues will decline from $19.6 billion in 2009 to about $16.4 billion in 2019. Not surprisingly, the report blames the projected decline on generic competition and the lack of new antibiotic launches over the past 10 years.

At present, the top seven antibiotic markets in the world include the US, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. According to Datamonitor’s analyses, total sales in these markets have fallen by about 1.6 percent annually since 2005 and will continue to decline by almost 2.0 percent a year through 2019. In 2009, three antibiotics had sales of about or more than $1.0 billion; Johnson & Johnson’s Levaquin (market leader), and Pfizer’s Zosyn, and Zyvox. Interestingly, Pfizer recently decided to shut down its US-based antibacterial drug discovery program and move it to China and Johnson & Johnson recently announced that it was getting out of the antibiotic discovery business. 

Big pharma’s decision to abandon antibiotic research could not have come at a worse time. The incidence of antibiotic resistance among both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria is rising at unprecedented rates. And while safe and effective treatments for Gram positive infections including MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) still exist, the number of treatment options to treat Gram negative infections caused by Acinetobacter spp, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and enteric bacteria is severely limited. The recent description and rapid spread of a beta-lactamase enzyme called NDM-1 that inactivates the antibiotic carbapenem—the last safe and effective antibiotic to universally treat infections caused by Gram negative bacteria —is extremely troubling and worrisome.

While much of the focus over the last decade was on MRSA, infections caused by untreatable, multiple drug resistant Gram negative bacteria will pose the greatest public health threat over the next 10 years. Unfortunately, it is much harder to develop new antibiotic treatments for Gram negative infections as compared with ones caused by Gram positive bacteria. Further, at present, most of the companies that remain in the antibiotic space continue to focus on new treatment for MRSA and related bacteria. Consequently, new treatments for Gram negative infections may be more than a decade away!

Finally, like MRSA, most infections caused by multiple drug resistant Gram negative bacteria are nosocomial in nature (although the incidence of community acquired infections is also on the rise). This means that the most likely place to become infected with these bacteria is institutionalized healthcare settings including hospitals and nursing homes.

In the past, we have relied on pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to discover new antibiotic treatments. The decision of many of these companies to leave the antibacterial space for purely financial reasons is unfortunate and regrettable. However, the growing incidence of antibiotic resistance among both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria suggests that new antibiotics are necessary and that alternate approaches to new antibiotic drug discovery must be implemented. Whether this is through public/private partnerships or strictly through government programs is irrelevant. The bottom line is that we need new antibiotics; and if they are not discovered soon, many patients will die from previously treatable bacterial infections!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (start an antibiotic drug discovery company)

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The Advanced Learning Institute will be hosting a conference entitle Social Media for Pharma on May 24 & 25, 2010 at the Hyatt Hotel in Princeton, NJ. Presenters include representatives from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, NovoNordisk, Daiichi Sankyo, Lundbeck, Porter Novelli, the National Organization for Rare Diseases and many others. 

Topics to be covered include:

• Developing a social media strategy that works for your organization
• Update on regulatory guidance for social media
• Managing on going regulatory challenges for social media
• Building a business case and demonstrating ROI for social media platforms
• Creating a stronger sense of community and brand recognition using social media
• Monitoring customer feedback and satisfaction
• Determine the right mix of social media for your organization
• Latest innovations in social media
• Using twitter to turn your employees into stakeholders into brand ambassadors

and much more!

An agenda for the meeting can be found here. Mention BioJobBlog or BioCrowd and get $200 off the registration fee. For more information please contact melissa@aliconferences.com

I hope to see you at the meeting…it ought to be a good one!!!!!!!!!!

Until next time..

Good Luck and Good Tweeting, Blogging, Podcasting etc etc!!!!!

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