QDIS Blog

Here are a couple of interesting articles recently about Sanofi-Aventis and Imclone. The first article claims that they were going to merge.

Sanofi-Aventis Is Said to Be Mystery Suitor for ImClone in Deal Scuttled by Icahn - New York Times

Then Sanofi says that isn’t going to happen.

Sanofi Denies Pursuing ImClone:

It will be interesting since sometimes such protest means they are at least thinking about it. I personally don’t think it will happen but it will be interesting to see if anything happens.

Technorati Tags: pharma M&A, pharmaceutical deals, Imclone, Sanofi-Aventis

Email Ed Vawter

Bookmark it with: | del.icio.us | Digg it | Furl | Simpy | Spurl | My Yahoo! |

Another merger from earlier this week (article is from Oct 13).

RedOrbit - Health - Pennsylvania Company Buys RxKinetix

Endo Pharmaceuticals is going to buy RxKinetix Inc. based on Boulder, CO for $95 million. RxKinetix Inc. is developing a drug called RK-0202 to treat mouth sores associated with chemotherapy. Not much else to report on this but it is part of a larger continuing merger activity in the pharmaceutical industry

Technorati Tags: Endo Pharmaceuticals, pharma M&A, pharmaceutical deals, RxKinetix Inc

Email Ed Vawter

Bookmark it with: | del.icio.us | Digg it | Furl | Simpy | Spurl | My Yahoo! |

Mergers continues unabated. Today Eli Lilly announced they will acquire Icos based in Bothell, WA for $2.1 billion dollars.

Eli Lilly to buy Icos for $2.1B: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Icos was just on the verge of becoming profitable and they do have a joint venture with Lilly for Cialis. While not totally unexpected, it is interesting none the less. My impression is that Icos’s pipeline was pretty thin and it is surprising that Lilly offered this much for them. I guess they feel having total control of Cialis is worth that much and that anything else that comes out of the pipeline is a bonus.

THe most interesting thing will be what happens to the facilities Icos has in Bothell, WA. I know people who work there and have visited the site on several occasions. I’m not sure that Lilly will want to keep that site open and I fear for the jobs of people I know there.

Other Resources

• Yahoo! News Search Results for lilly icos
• lilly icos - Google News

Blog Searches

• Google Blog Search: LIlly Icos
• Lilly Icos - Ask.com Blog and Feed Search

Technorati Tags: Eli Lilly, Icos, pharma M&A, pharmaceutical deals, Cialis

Email Ed Vawter

Bookmark it with: | del.icio.us | Digg it | Furl | Simpy | Spurl | My Yahoo! |

Pfizer is acquiring Powdermed for their new technology related to vaccines.

RED HERRING | Pfizer Nabs Startup PowderMed:

Pfizer wants the technology they have developed to produce vaccines using DNA-caoted microscopic gold particles that can be placed under the skin without a needle using a pressurized gas. Powdermed is developing vaccines for herpes, chronic hepatitis and genital warts.

This is a good acquisition for Pfizer since they don’t have a presence in vaccines and the hope seems to be that this technology will be far ahead of the old egg-based vaccine or the newer developments with cell-based vaccine production.

Technorati Tags: Pfizer, pharma M&A, pharmaceutical deals, Powdermed

Email Ed Vawter

Bookmark it with: | del.icio.us | Digg it | Furl | Simpy | Spurl | My Yahoo! |

Genentech has one of the most expensive drugs for cancer in Avastatin which can cost $50,000 per year. for colon cancer. Avastin was recently approved for lung cancer but since twice as much is needed to treat lung cancer, it would cost $100,00 per year. So it was interesting to see that Genentech is capping the cost.

Genentech Caps Cost of Cancer Drug for Some Patients - New York Times:

The drug was to be capped at $55,000 for families of certain income levels. This isn’t too big of a deal though because many patients never live long enough to reach this cap (median survival is 12.3 months). As it is apporved for more indications based on future trials, this could change especially if

Their other choice would have been to reduce the price of the drug across the board but it is likely this wold have reduced the income from Avastin more than just capping the cost. From the terms of maximizing their profits, this may be a good deal. Also, as Avastin is approved for additional indications, the potential for Avastin is enormous; some consider it to be able to reach$ 4 to $10 billion in sales per year.

Technorati Tags: Avastin, cancer drug, drug cost, Genentech, lung cancer

Email Ed Vawter

Bookmark it with: | del.icio.us | Digg it | Furl | Simpy | Spurl | My Yahoo! |

Some recent reports claim that newer more expensive anti-psychotic medications may be no better than older cheaper ones.

• ScienceDaily: Second-generation Antipsychotic Medications Appear To Offer Little Advantage Over Older Drugs
• Newer Schizophrenia Drugs May Be No Better - Yahoo! News

Both these news stories refer to a recent article in the October issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry which showed that after a year, there was no significant difference between those on older medications (118 patients) from those on newer medications (109 patients). iI was based on a quality of life score and after a year the group on the older medications were 53.2 and with the newer medications was 51.3.

Now granted, the number of patients is small but the results seem to indicate that older cheaper medications could be used in some cases. The thing I think that always needs to be kept in mind is that the results vary with individual patients and this is the reason I have reservations about health plans that try to “encourage” patients to use older medications when studies such as this come out. I understand the need to have access to affordable drugs, but i also firmly believe the decision on what to prescribe should be between the patient and their doctor. I understand the need for a preferred formulary, but think that the hurdles put in place up to prevent the use of newer mediations in some cases is detrimental to the patients health. If a patient tries the first generation drug and it either does not work effectively for them or has side effects, then there should be an easy way for them to get access to the second generation drugs. I some cases, the health insurer may refuse to pay for any costs of these newer drugs. While I think paying a larger co-pay is reasonable, not covering the drug at all is not.

Technorati Tags: antipsychotic drugs, schizophrenia

Email Ed Vawter

Bookmark it with: | del.icio.us | Digg it | Furl | Simpy | Spurl | My Yahoo! |

It will be interesting to see where this story ends. Now Anormed is considering the higher bid from Genzyme and has given Millenium three days to respond.

AnorMED considers higher Genzyme bid superior, gives Millennium 3 days to react - Forbes.com

The above Forbes article has a reasonable synopsis of events but otherwise is very short.

Another article from Bioworld has some insight into the situation.

Genzyme, Now In Front For AnorMED

The whole bidding war seems to be over the drug Mozobil which stimulates the transfer of stem cells from bone marrow into the blood stream, although AnorMED does have some other promising drugs in it’s pipeline.

Technorati Tags: Anormed, Genzyme, Millennium, pharma M&A, pharmaceutical deals, Mozobil

Email Ed Vawter

Bookmark it with: | del.icio.us | Digg it | Furl | Simpy | Spurl | My Yahoo! |

Seems Barr labs will be successful in its bid to takeover Croatian Pliva for a whooping $2.5 billion US dollars.

Barr Secures Takeover of Pliva: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

The deal should be completed by the end of October. It will be interesting to see if this pays of for Barr. I normally am not a supporter of the “bigger is better” mentality but I wouldn’t bet against Barr’s management on this one.

Other News Stories

• Yahoo! News Search Results for Barr Pliva
• Barr Pliva - Google News

Technorati Tags: Barr Labs, pharma M&A, pharmaceutical deals, Pliva

Email Ed Vawter

Bookmark it with: | del.icio.us | Digg it | Furl | Simpy | Spurl | My Yahoo! |

The FDA has recently approved additional flu vaccines for the upcoming season. This is good news in light of past problems in this area.

FDA Approves Additional Vaccine for Upcoming Influenza Season

The new vaccine is called FluLaval made by ID Biomedical (a subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline biologics) and distributed by GlaxoSmithKline and was approved under the accelerated approval pathway. I fin it encouraging that the FDA recognizes problems with the supply in the past and is taking steps to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future.

This brings the total number of flu vaccines averrable in the US to five. Another vaccine, Fluarix was approved last year and is also made by GlaxoSmithKline.

Other Resources

• Yahoo! News Search Results for FluLaval
• FluLaval - Google Search

Technorati Tags: flu, FluLaval, GlaxoSmithKline, Fluarix, vaccine

Email Ed Vawter

Bookmark it with: | del.icio.us | Digg it | Furl | Simpy | Spurl | My Yahoo! |

The pharmaceutical merger mania has now spread to Australia. It is reported that Sigma Pharmaceuticals will acquire Australian Pharmaceutical Industries for $422 US dollars.

Sigma Pharmaceuticals makes offer for rival - Marketplace by Bloomberg - International Herald Tribune:

I do find it interesting that the merger mania has expanded beyond what I considered to be the bounds; namely the US and Europe. I’m not up on the Australian pharmaceutical industry but this seems like it follows the lines of business development for Sigma since they merged with Arrow Pharmaceuticals Limited back in Dec 2005.

Other Resources

• Sigma Pharmaceuticals Limited Proposal to Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (pdf)
• Sigma proposes merger with API | Business | The Australian

Technorati Tags: pharma M&A, pharmaceutical deals, Sigma Pharmaceuticals

Email Ed Vawter

Bookmark it with: | del.icio.us | Digg it | Furl | Simpy | Spurl | My Yahoo! |