Consolidation Continues in the US Life Sciences Industry
Earlier this week Roche Holding AG announced that it would pay $230 million to acquire the San Diego, CA-based biopharmaceutical company Anadys. The reason for the acquisition is to bolster Roche’s standing in the hepatitis C market which is projected to grow to as much as $15 billion annually by 2019.
Anadys has a fairly large experimental pipeline of hepatitis C drugs, the most advanced candidate being setrobuivr that is being clinically tested in combination with the generic antiviral drug ribavirin and Pegasys (PEGylated α-interferon) as a hepatitis C treatment.
The Anadys deal comes on the heels of an agreement last week between Roche and Merck & Co to jointly market hepatitis C treatments in the US. Merck recently won approval last May for Victrelis (boceprevir) the first new hepatitis C treatment in over a decade. Also, late last month Vertex Pharmaceuticals received approval for a new hepatitis C drug called Incivek (telaprevir). Anadys is also conducting early clinical trials on ANA773 as a possible treatment for hepatitis C infection, cancer and other chronic diseases.
In other news, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is rumored to be contemplating purchasing Maryland-based Human Genome Sciences (HGS), which recently received US approval for Benlysta a novel monoclonal antibody treatment for the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematous.
Benlysta was the first new drug to be approved to treat lupus in over 50 years. GSK is HGS’s commercialization partner for Benlysta which is expected to be a blockbuster drug. The reason for the takeover rumors is likely HGS’s stock price which has fallen from 52-week high of $30 to its current value of $15 per share.
Until next time...
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!
Layoffs at big pharma tend to slow during the summer as most people are on vacation and nobody wants to fire folks when the kids are out of school. However, the failing economy has prompted several companies to abandon tradition and fire people during the summer anyway.
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
Shire, an Irish speciality pharma and rare diseases drug maker, today
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It seems like hostile takeover bids in the life sciences industry may be de rigueur (how can anyone forget the
The almost two-year manufacturing woes of orphan drug manufacturer Genzyme have
The French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis continues to
According to a
After seven months of public bickering over an appropriate sale price, the NY Time
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Most major pharmaceutical companies left Brazil about 30 years ago. However, much has changed in the country over the past 30 years and most western pharmaceutical companies are rushing back into Brazil to expand their operations and make acquisitions. At the same time, many Brazilian drug makers are beginning to consolidate and spread abroad.
I am certain that many of you may have noticed that the size of the life sciences industry is shrinking at an unprecedented rate. Big pharma companies flush with cash, near- empty pipelines and impending patent cliffs have embarked on a buying spree that is likely to continue for next years (or at least until the economy shows clear signs of resuscitation). Pfizer’s
Several months ago, I
The Boston Globe
The Pharmalot Blog
As predicted by many industry insiders and Wall Street analysts, the Genzyme board may be holding out for at least a $75 per share offer from Sanofi-Aventis. Previously, Sanofi-Aventis offered Genzyme $69 per share despite clear signals from Genzyme's board and its shareholder that the proffered offer was inadequate.
The recession is clearly taking its toll on the biotechnology industry and continues to force it to consolidate. Today,
Merck of Germany
I received a call today from GDS International, a UK-based b2b publishing company, alerting me to its annual, event called the
The Belgian chemical manufacturer Solvay 
The old baseball adage which says that “you can’t tell the players apart without a program” is particularly apt when it comes to tracing the M &A activity that led to the creation of some today's largest pharmaceutical companies.
Previously, on the Bristol-Myers Squibb/ImClone Let’s Make a Deal Show.
According to a 