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I was sitting around minding my own business (well sort of) and I received the following e-mail message. People must be reading BioJobBlog or something!

In the middle of the worst national job market since the early 1980's, Roche Pharma Research in Nutley, New Jersey is hiring. Specifically, this world class R&D center is seeking to hire 40 scientists to strengthen its research efforts to develop drugs to combat inflammatory diseases like arthritis and asthma.

In addition to Inflammation, Nutley continues to be the headquarters for Roche's Oncology Disease Biology Area, as well as RNA Therapeutics (an emerging area in understanding how genes are turned on and off in cells).

Focusing on drug discovery and non-clinical development, the site has a long tradition of discovering innovative new medicines.

Marcie Geremakis of Roche HR is available to discuss the efforts to recruit the new scientists and why Nutley is an outstanding environment for scientists.  A number of scientists are available to discuss the following:

• Roche's cutting edge scientific approaches to drug discovery focused on meeting the demands of the emerging need for personalized healthcare.

• Roche's intent to provide its scientists with the environment necessary to push forward novel ideas while challenging old paradigms.
• The ability to use state-of-the-art technology and collaborate with Roche's world class scientists across the globe engaged in biomarker discovery, novel biologics platforms, RNAi and diagnostics.

With well over 100 projects in research and more than 60 New Molecular Entities in development, Roche’s pipeline is among the best in the pharmaceuticals industry.

Please call me at 212-468-4306 or e-mail me at jillian.chertok@mslworldwide.com if you would like any additional information, or are interested in scheduling a time to speak with Marcie or one of the scientists at Roche. 

I must disclose that I have no financial arrangement with this agency nor have I ever done business with them before.  But, I figured if there are jobs to be had in this economy I ought to pass them on to folks who are looking.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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According to a report yesterday, Roche is reducing headcount at San Francisco-based Genentech by merging the information technology departments of its pharmaceutical and diagnostics divisions. The company didn’t disclose how many people would be losing jobs as a result of the consolidation.

The company previously merged all of its human resources functions and roughly 20% of HR personnel lost their jobs—although most were able to find new jobs within Roche.

A Roche spokeswoman added that the company will continue unifying its communication processes in an attempt to further reduce the size of its workforce.

Expect more announcements from Roche in the coming months.

Until next time...

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

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The Belgian chemical manufacturer Solvay announced today that it had agreed to sell its pharmaceutical business unit to Abbott Pharmaceuticals for $6.6 billion. By purchasing Solvay, Abbott gains access to emerging markets in Eastern Europe and Asia along with new therapeutic areas, including hormone therapies and vaccines. Solvay's flu vaccine Influvac will give Abbott an entrant in the burgeoning vaccines market, which is currently dominated by European pharmaceutical giants like GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis.

Abbott already holds U.S. marketing rights for Solvay's Trilipix and TriCor, drugs which raise "good" HDL cholesterol while reducing triglycerides and "bad" LDL cholesterol.

Solvay's other top-selling drugs include the Parkinson's disease treatment Duodopa and hormone therapy drugs AndroGel and Duphaston. It is not clear whether or not the Solvay purchase will affect ongoing pharmaceutical operations or staffing decision in the US. However, I suspect that there will be management changes and layoffs in Europe.

In other news, Johnson & Johnson bought an 18 percent stake in Dutch biotechnology company Crucell NV, which is trying to develop a universal flu vaccine, while competitor Merck acquired the rights to sell Australia-based CSL Ltd.'s Afluria flu vaccine in the U.S.

The Solvay deal is the latest in a string of mergers and acquisitions, as cash-rich pharmaceutical companies race to acquire new products amid looming patent expiry on blockbuster drugs. Earlier this year Swiss drugmaker Roche acquired Genentech following similar deals uniting Pfizer Inc. and Wyeth, and Merck & Co. Inc. with Schering-Plough.

Expect more M&A activity in the life sciences sector before year’s end.

Until next time...

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

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Word on the street suggests that Roche has severed its relationship with the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) the trade group that represents and lobbies on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry. The recent purchase of Genentech must have convinced the venerable 100 year old pharmaceutical company that proteins not small molecule drugs are the key to its future.

According to published reports, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) has already sent an emissary to Roche's headquarters in Basel to talk to Severin Schwan, its CEO, about the benefits of BIO membership. Will Roche really eschew its membership in RhRMA and join BIO? And,will the loss of Roche's financial contributions substantial reduce PhRMA's influence and lobbying power in Congress? I guess only time will tell!

 Until next time...

 Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!

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The New York Times reported today that Genentech’s blockbuster cancer treatment, Avastin, failed to show a significant effect on preventing the recurrence of colon cancer, limiting its utility as an adjunct treatment to treat primary colorectal cancer. While Avastin is already a best-selling cancer treatment, success in this closely watched and highly visible clinical trial could have paved the way to a new uses of the drug, potentially increasing sales by billions of dollars a year.

Avastin had sales of $2.7 billion in the United States alone last year. But it is currently approved only for late-stage colon, breast and lung cancers. For those indications, patient’s lives have been prolonged for up to a few months. The new trial was designed to determine whether or not Avastin could be used earlier in the course of the disease, right after surgery to remove the tumor. The hope of such so-called adjuvant therapy is to prevent the cancer from coming back at all, effectively curing the patient.

While the Avastin failure will have little or no effect on Genentech’s financial outlook, it does call into question whether or not Roche paid too much last month to buy the 44 percent of Genentech it did not already own. Roche has long insisted that its desire to own all of Genentech did not hinge on the results of this trial. And yet, the trial appeared to play a major role in Roche’s months-long negotiations with Genentech.  It appeared that Roche, which had started those discussions last summer, wanted to complete the deal before results of the Avastin trial were announced — on the assumption that a successful trial would have sent Genentech’s stock soaring, possibly putting the takeover price it offered out of reach.  A failed trial, on the other hand, could have pushed down the value of Genentech’s stock. So it now looks as if Roche could have paid less had the results of the Avastin trial come out before it completed the deal.

Art Levinson, Genentech’s former CEO who played hardball with Roche over the course of negotiations, needs to be recognized for his outstanding business acumen. He and other Genentech executives convinced Roche that Avastin sales could quadruple, to $10 billion, by 2015 if the drug could be used for early-stage colon, lung and breast cancers. This possibility induced Roche to raise its bid for Genentech’s outstanding shares from $86.50 to $95 per share. Although Dr. Levinson wasn’t able to fend off Roche’s takeover and is no longer Genetech's CEO, he is likely “laughing all the way to the bank” as the expression goes. And, who said that PhDs aren’t any good at business?

Roche shares were down more than 10 percent on Wednesday, closing at $29.54.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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Roche announced Tuesday that it will replace Arthur Levinson, PhD, Genentech’s current CEO and American biotechnology pioneer, with Pacal Soriot, DVM, MBA who currently leads Roche’s worldwide commercial operations.  Dr. Levinson will become Chairman of Genentech’s newly configured board of directors but no longer have control over day-to-day operations at the company.  Mr. Soriot will become CEO of Genentech and head all of Roche’s pharmaceutical activities in the US. Some of the other changes that will occur at the company include: Susan Desmond-Hellmann, Genentech’s president of product development, will move into an advisory role after the middle of this year. Genentech CFO David Ebersman is leaving the company and Ian Clark, who heads commercial operations for Genentech, will be chief marketing officer of Roche’s pharma division.

Dr. Levinson and Mr. Soriot will lead the efforts to combine all of Roche’s North American operations which ultimately will be run from Genentech’s South San Francisco location. Many of the activities at Roche’s previous North American headquarters in Nutley, NJ will move west, which means downsizing, more layoffs and possible closure of the Nutley site. 

Dr. Levinson, one of Genentech’s early employees, joined the company as a senior scientist in 1980 and has been its chief executive since 1995. During his tenure, Genentech became the largest, most profitable and perhaps the most innovative biotechnology company in the US. Unlike Dr. Levinson, who is a molecular biologist and has over 30 years of experience in developing successful protein-based drugs, Dr. Soriot, a former Sanofi-Aventis financial and commercial operations executive has little or no experience with biotechnology products.

With this in mind, I suspect that many things will change at Genentech as Roche attempts to transform the once heralded biotechnology company into a subsidiary of its pharmaceutical division. Don’t be surprised if you see a mass exodus from company. Farewell DNA, all good things must end!

Until next time...


Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (try Genentech, there will be openings soon)
 

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Since 2007, approximately 80,000 pharmaceutical jobs have been eliminated. The recent consolidation in the industry, e.g., Merck-Schering, Pfizer-Wyeth and Roche-Genentech suggests that many more life sciences jobs will be lost over the next year or so. Typically, to avoid law suits and possible discrimination claims, most companies will layoff a mixture of experienced and entry level employees that cover the racial, religious and age spectra. For those of you who may not know, Americans who are 40 and older constitute a “protected class of employees.” In other words, companies that layoff employees cannot disproportionately give pink slips to employees 40 years of age or older. This law was enacted because older employees typically have higher salaries and have accrued more benefits and vacation time than their more junior counterparts and eliminating them can drastically cut costs. While most companies are careful to layoff a mixture of junior and senior employees during large layoffs, a quick perusal of the demographics of employees who lose their jobs reveals that many of them are older, more experienced workers. Sacrificing a few entry level employees (to prevent any red flags) is worth it to the accountants who charged with cutting costs and orchestrating large corporate layoffs.

Unlike consumer goods, pharmaceutical and biotechnology drug development is arcane, complex and may take up to 15 years to complete. There are many “go” or “no go” decisions that must be made during the drug development process. Typically, these decisions are rendered by experienced employees who have been “down the road” many times before and are able to recognize the oft-time nuanced attributes of successful drug candidates. Without the benefit of these employee and their experiences, drug companies may struggle to make the “right decisions” for new products being developed. Also, the loss of experienced employees can disrupt the flow of essential “corporate knowledge” to entry level and more junior employees. This is important because— while most entry level and junior employees are academically and technically qualified—it usually takes them years (under the tutelage of mentors and senior employees) to understand a company’s best practices. Put simply, the unrelenting loss of experienced pharmaceutical workers can alter the standing or dominance of pharmaceutical companies in certain therapeutic areas. While massive layoffs of experienced pharmaceutical employees bolster drug stock prices in the short term, the long term effects of these layoffs on the overall health of the pharmaceutical industry remains uncertain.

Jeff Kindler, Pfizer’s CEO, mentioned yesterday during a CNBC interview, that eight Wyeth senior executives will keep their jobs after the Pfizer-Wyeth deal closes later this year. Not surprisingly, he failed to mention how many “rank and file” employees of the combined company would keep their jobs after the merger. Don’t be shocked when Pfizer-Wyeth announces massive layoffs after the deal closes—Pfizer’s stock price has fallen 21% since it announced the Wyeth acquisition late last fall.

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!

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It’s official!  Roche has secured more than 96 percent of shares in Genentech Inc, completing its $46.8 billion buyout of the U.S. biotech group. It now holds some 93 percent of outstanding Genentech shares, a further 3 percent are guaranteed to be delivered within the next three business days and it will integrate the U.S. biotech group as soon as possible.

Soon after Roche completed the transaction on Thursday, the company announced that Genentech's common stock would no longer be traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Genentech, founded in 1976, was one of the first and most successful biotechnology companies in the US. After lagging behind rival Amgen for most of the 1990s, Genentech eclipsed Amgen in the early 2000s on the strength of its oncology franchise (Herceptin and Avastin) and its deep drug development pipeline.

Its acquisition by Roche truly signals the end of an era in history of the American biotechnology industry.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Cloning! 

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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.

I used to be able to keep track of all of the moving parts  of most of these mergers but advancing age and unprecedented M&A activity in the pharma industry prevents me from successfully doing this any longer. To that end, about a week ago, the New York Times published a pretty cool and informative chart that historically traces the corporate mergers that lead to creation of Pfizer, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis and others.

Check it out!!!!!

Until next time...

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

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Late Thursday, after 8 months of difficult and often acrimonious negotiations, Genentech’s board finally caved and agreed to allow Roche to purchase the remaining 44% of the outstanding Genentech shares that it doesn’t already own. The price: $95 per share—less than the $112 per share that Genentech’s board and management team wanted —but better than the $86.50 per share that was tendered last fall.

While Roche contends that it will continue to run Genentech as an autonomously operating business unit, many Genentech employees are dubious. I suspect that many DNA (Genentech’s stock symbol) employees will embrace a “wait and see” attitude before any decisions are made about whether or not to stay at the “new company.” Roche’s greatest challenge will be integrating the two companies without ruining Genentech’s innovative culture and immediately sending its best scientists and management team out the door. Pharma and biotech corporate cultures are very different from one another and many biotech employees find it difficult to adapt to big pharma’s slow-moving and anachronistic approach to drug development. As previously reported, US business operations of both companies will be based at Genentech’s headquarters in South San Francisco, CA rather than in Nutley, NJ, where Roche’s American business is currently based. This is not good news for many of Roche’s Nutley employees. Roche has been trying unsuccessfully for years to jettison the Nutley site and it seems likely now. Don’t be surprised if you see a mass exodus at the Nutley site. All of Roche’s US products will be sold under the Genentech brand.

Roche’s purchase of Genentech, America’s oldest biotechnology company (started in 1976) and considered by many to be the crown jewel of the industry, truly signals the end of an era. Let’s hope that another “Genentech” (and others like it) emerge as the US biotechnology industry continues to evolve in the 21^st century.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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Late last week, Roche raised the price of its hostile offer to buy out Genentech to $93 a share, from $86.50. While the Genentech board advised its shareholders that the company is worth $112 per share, many financial analysts believe that the $93 per share offer may entice institutional investors to “pull the trigger” on the deal. Roche also extended its offer to shareholders by a week, until March 20. Roche already owns over 65 percent of Genentech’s outstanding shares.

Roche has indicated that if fewer than half the minority shares were tendered, it would not buy any of the shares tendered by Genentech shareholders. The new offer is likely to bring in more than half the minority shares, which would raise Roche’s ownership to at least 78 percent. About 71 percent of 131 Genentech stockholders who responded to a survey by Deutsche Bank on Friday said they would tender at least some of their shares at $93, and of those, half said they would tender virtually all. It is not clear what will happen if Roche is unable to purchase 100% of Genentech's shares.

Roche is motivated to close the deal as quickly as possible before results are released next month from a clinical trial of Avastin, one of Genentech’s top-selling cancer drugs. That trial, testing Avastin as a treatment for colon cancer after surgical removal of the tumore, could open a huge new market for the drug, which is now approved to treat cancer only at a later stage. Positive results from the trial may push Genentech’s stock price to over $100 per share—something that Roche desperately doesn’t want to happen.

If Roche is successful in its takeover bid, it  will likely to result in massive layoffs at Roche’s Nutley, NJ headquarters. Previously, Roche announced that it would move its US headquarters from Nutley to the Bay area if it acquires Genentech. Not good news for the state of New Jersey which is still reeling from the Pfizer-Wyeth takeover announced six weeks ago and the Merck-Schering Plough merger mentioned earlier today.

Until next time...

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

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While the domino theory was incorrect when it came to the spread of communism during the Cold War, there may be a kernel of truth to it when it is applied to today’s pharmaceutical industry. On Tuesday, Pfizer announced that it would lay off 800 researchers. Not to be outdone by Pfizer, Roche announced today that it plans to lay off about 780 workers over the next two to three years because of “worsening economic conditions.”

After spending the last decade or so associated with the pharmaceutical industry, one thing that I have learned is that there isn’t a single company that I can think of that wants to be the first to do anything. However, when a pharma company makes a bold move, the others are very quick to follow because they “don’t want to be perceived as not being “cutting edge” or keeping pace with their competitors. To that end, the domino theory may warrant some further investigation when it comes to day-to-day operations of big pharma.

Until next time,

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

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As you all know by now, Roche, last month, rocked the biotechnology world by tendering an offer to purchase the remaining shares of Genentech that it doesn’t already own.  The first offer made by Roche was summarily rejected by Genentech because its board felt that the offer undervalued the company.  I have no doubt that Roche and Genentech will eventually agree on a purchase price. That said, when companies are purchased, employees of the purchased company are typically laid-off or re-organized out of jobs. In marked contrast, Genentech announced (as expected) that it would offer virtually all of its 10,700 employees retention bonuses to remain with the company if it is purchased by Roche. These bonuses could cost Genentech as much as $371 million.  It was reported that the retention bonuses will be paid whether or not the merger goes through, and are in lieu of 2008 stock option grants.

Even with the bonuses, keeping employees could be a challenge for Genentech. Many Genentech employees (especially those who have been with the company for many years) are expected to become much wealthier if Roche pays a high price for their stock, particularly if unvested stock options vest immediately. That might mean some employees would no longer have to work for a living or might start their own companies to compete with Genentech. Many small biotech startups in the Bay area were started by Genentech alums.

Regardless of the outcome, Genentech’s retention bonus offer is another example of why Genentech was able to seperate itself from the rest of the biotech pack.  It is evident that CEO Arthur Levinson (one of the company's founders) understands something that many CEOs don’t—that employees are a company’s greatest asset.

Roche’s eventual acquisition of Genentech will signal the end of an era for one of the biotechnology industry’s most successful pioneers. It will truly be a sad day in the biotech world when the deal is finally consummated.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (try Genentech next Fall—there will be a mass exodus)

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 As expected, Genentech summarily rejected Roche’s offer to purchase it for $43.7 billion. Genentech executives claim that Roche’s offer is too low and it undervalues the actual worth of the company. Roche offered Genentech about $88 per share for remaining 44% of the outstanding shares of stock that it doesn’t already own. Many Wall Street analysts think that the actual value of Genentech stock is roughly $100 per share. As any business person knows (with or without an MBA), the first offer is usually not the last offered that is tendered in any deal.

Because Roche owns a majority controlling interest in Genentech, it is not clear whether Genentech can avoid actually being purchased by Roche. Genentech executives have publicly stated that earlier agreements between the two companies that guide the sale of Genentech may no longer be in effect and that they will not abide by them.  I suspect that only time (or perhaps the courts) will tell.

Roche has already indicated that if it acquires Genentech, there will likely be job cuts to its 10,700 member workforce (something that Genentech wants to prevent). I suspect that Genentech’s rejection of Roche’s offer is the first in a series designed to maximize shareholder value for Genentech (not to mention the large sums of money that company workers and executives who own stock options will make as a result of a sale).

I predict that Roche will ultimately buy Genentech. The only thing that remains to be determined is how much Roche will have to pay to acquire the biotech giant. Roche cannot afford to let this deal go south—a bright and successful future depends on it!

If I were a Genentech employee, I would be dusting off the old resume right about now.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!

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On the heels of yesterday’s announcement that it wants to buy Genentech, Roche, in a surprise move, announced today that it will move its Nutley, NJ-based US corporate headquarters to California. According to a report, research and development activities in oncology and metabolism at the Nutley site will be expanded. However, the company will consolidate all Nutley-based finance and information-technology operations and close manufacturing facilities on the site by 2010. It is not clear how many of Roche’s 3,240 New Jersey employees will be affected by the proposed move to South San Francisco. Suffice it to say, more than a few Roche employees are likely to lose their jobs after the company’s headquarters heads west.

Once dubbed the”nation's medicine chest”, New Jersey has steadily been losing pharmaceutical jobs since 1990 when 20% of all US pharmaceutical jobs were in NJ—at present 13.7% of  American pharmaceutical jobs reside in NJ. It has been a long, slow burn for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology workforce in the Garden State.

The Roche announcement comes as several other New Jersey drug makers, including Schering-Plough and Johnson & Johnson's Ortho Biotech unit, have been laying off workers because of the economic downturn and tough times in the industry. It also comes several days after Barr Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Montvale, announced that it is being acquired for $7.5 billion by Israeli generics giant Teva.  

The growing scarcity of pharmaceutical and biotechnology jobs coupled with the highest property taxes in the US may cause a mass migration from the state. Not that there is anything wrong with that!!!!!!

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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At lunch the other day, I was telling a bunch of people about how brilliant Roche’s biotechnology strategy has been for the past 20 years or so. All of this changed for me on Monday, when Roche announced that it wanted to buy the remaining shares of Genentech that it already doesn’t own for $ 43.7 billion —Roche currently owns 56% of Genentech’s stock. More importantly, Roche doesn’t have control of Genentech’s board of directors nor does it influence corporate strategy or product development.

Unlike many other pharma companies who have historically purchased  biotechnology companies and then integrated them into existing corporate structures, Roche previously opted to buy controlling interests in companies and then allowed them to continue to operate independently with little corporate input or guidance. Unlike pharma culture, which is very structured and inherently conservative, the most successful biotechnology companies have been built on cultures that promote creativity and “thinking outside the box”.   If Roche buys Genentech and attempts to integrate it into the existing Roche family of companies, I suspect that all of this will change dramatically.

For the past 30 years or so, Genentech has been one of the brightest stars in the biotechnology universe.  Genentech’s management team worked long and hard to implement and maintain a vision that was formulated way back in the late 1970s when the company was first formed. Even though it is the world’s largest and most financially successful biotechnology company, Genentech has steadfastly resisted the temptation to go “corporate” and has worked diligently to maintain its “biotechnology identity” —symbolized by innovation, creativity and employee-centric policies.

I have no doubt that if the Roche-Genentech deal is approved, there will be a mass exodus of talent from the company. Based on my experience, a publicly-treaded biotechnology employee’s greatest fear is the dreaded corporate takeover! I have yet to meet a biotechnology company employee who is willing to sacrifice freedom and creativity (despite a possible financial upside) for more structure, discipline and an endless plethora of rules! 

In my opinion, the deal makes sense for Roche—competition in the cancer space is intense and they want to hedge their future success on Genentech’s oncology franchise. In the best case scenario, Roche will buy Genentech but allow it to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary with an independent management team that spends as little time in Basel as possible. I think the old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is particularly apt here!

Until next time….

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

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Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) directed against vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptors on cancer cells, have been found to slow the growth of a variety of cancers including colorectal, breast and lung.  While a number of blockbuster biotechnology products( based on these MAbs (Avastin by Genentech/Roche and Eribitux by Bristol-Myers Squibb/ImClone/Merck KGA) have been approved to treat a variety of different cancers their effectiveness as cancer treatments has been the subject of intense debate since their approvals.

Although numerous human clinical trials have shown that VEGF inhibitors slow the growth and development of tumors, they, as a class, don’t seem to significantly increase the survival time for most cancer patients. Further, Avastin and Erbitux are generally not used as stand alone treatments but are used in combination with more tradition anti-cancer chemotherapies. The high costs of these drugs, (Avastin’s worldwide sales hit $ 3.5 billion last year) and their variable effectiveness have caused many to question the usefulness of this class of drugs to treat cancer patients.

The well-publicized use of these drugs as cancer treatments coupled with anecdotal evidence about their effectiveness has put practicing oncologists between a rock and a hard place when it comes to treating patietns with cancer. In an article in Sunday’s New York Times one prominent oncologist said that depsite the controversy,  “I still use Avastin routinely. It’s not a slam dunk and, in fact, the incremental benefit may be more modest than we want to admit.” Others are more sanguine about VEGF inhibitors as cancer treatments “Even when these drugs ‘work,’ what kind of impact are you talking about?” said Fran Visco, president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition. But we market them and give them to everybody.”  

Nevertheless, most oncologists find it difficult to withhold Avastin or Erbitux from cancer patients seeking hope. As one oncologist put it “ When I am not sitting in front of a patient, I think about whether drugs like Avastin are worth it to society. But when facing a seriously ill patient, who, based on clinical trial results, might benefit — even if only a little — from Avastin, I think about the patient’s needs.” 

Regardless of their therapeutic value, the main issue with this class of anti-cancer drugs is cost. Avastin treatment costs patients about $4000-$9000 per month— Eribitux treatment is even more costly! While Medicare and most private insurers cover 80% of the cost, patients can be responsible for 20% or more of treatmetn costs.  As posited in the Times article “If Avastin were inexpensive or if it cured cancer or even held it at bay, as the drug Gleevec does for blood cancer, few might care.”

Are anti-VEGF drugs real cancer treatments or expensive red herrings? Clearly, the jury is still out on that one. That said, I think that only cancer patients can truly provide an accurate response to that question!

Until next time…

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

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Roche Diagnostics plans to transfer about 300 jobs from its Indianapolis facility to Germany over the next three years as part of a consolidation plan.

A Roche spokesperson announced yesterday that transfers will start in October and most will be completed by 2011. A limited number of employees will be offered transfers to Germany, but most will be laid off.

Most of the positions are in research and development of reagents, which are chemicals used in test kits for HIV, West Nile virus and other diseases. The company says about 85 percent of production for the unit affected by the transfers is already in Germany. Roche has about 2,800 employees in Indianapolis.

Like other sectors of the US economy, the pharmaceutical sector is getting whacked.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting??????

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There are currently two injectable products on the market that are used to treat chronic Hepatitis C infections. Both products, PEG-INTRON (Schering Plough) and Pegasys (Roche) are PEGylated versions of the cytokine interferon-alpha that are used in combination with ribavarin (an orally-delivered small molecule drug) to treat patients infected with Hepatitis C virus.  

PEG-INTRON (peginterferon alpha-2b) was co-developed by Schering Plough and Enzon in the early 1990s and brought to market in 2000. Pegasys (peginterferon alpha-2a) , which use a different chemistry to attach PEG to interferon-alpha, was approved in early 2002 and quickly supplanted PEG-INTRON as a treatment of choice for Hepatitis C infections. Pegasys also gained approval in 2005 to treat chronic Hepatitis B infections.

The knock on PEG-INTRON was that it appeared to lose potency in liquid form (a claim that has always been denied by Schering and Enzon). Nevertheless, PEG-INTRON was supplied to patients as a sterile powder which had to be reconstituted prior to injection. In contrast, Pegasys was supplied in liquid form in pre-filled self injection pens to infected patients. This was possible because the PEG chemistry used to create Pegasys was found to be extremely stable (as compared with PEG-Intron?) in liquid form. Although there appeared to be no real differences in efficacy between PEG-INTRON and Pegasys to treat Hepatitis C infections, patients tended to prefer Pegasys over PEG-INTRON because it was easier and more convenient to use.

Schering Plough has been struggling for the past 5 years or so to recapture the market share that it lost following Pegasys’ introduction in late 2002. To that end, in 2003 the company received FDA approval for a pre-filled injection pen to administer PEG-INTRON. Further, to dispel any rumors regarding PEG-Intron’s efficacy relative to Pegasys, Schering decided to conduct two large head-to-head clinical studies that compared PEG-Intron or Pegasys in combination with ribavarin as treatments for Hepatitis C patients. Today, Schering-Plough announced the results of the first of these two large scale clinical studies called IDEAL. The results from the IDEAL study showed that PEG-Intron was just as effective as Pegasys for treating patients with Hepatitis C. Further, it appeared that fewer patients taking PEG-INTRON relapsed after treatment.

It is not clear whether Schering will win the war but the company certainly appears to have won this most recent skirmish!

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (try Schering Plough)!!!!!!!!!

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Swiss pharmaceuticals producer Roche Holding AG said Thursday it has received approval from the U.S. health authorities for its anemia drug Mircera, but is still awaiting resolution of a patent case before launching the drug in the United States.

Mircera, which has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for patients with anemia caused by kidney failure, is the subject of a legal tussle between Roche and rival Amgen Inc.

The new EPO-like drug is already sold in Austria, Sweden, Germany, Britain and Norway, Roche said.

Amgen will fight Roche to the end on this one. But, I think Roche will prevail. Let’s hope so!!!!!!!

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