QDIS Blog

The mergers and acquisitions continue unabated. Genentech is to buy Tanox for almost $1 billion in cash! Tanox is Genentech partner on Xolair (omalizumab) an asthma drug.

Genentech to buy Tanox for $919M in cash

Both of these companies have been working with Novartis for 10 years (since 1996). This will allow Genentech to no long pay royalties to Tanox and also allows it to obtain Novartis’s royalty payments to Tanox.

THis is similar to the Eli lilly purchase of Icos. In that case Lilly felt it was better to purchase Icos than to continue paying royalties on Cialis. This is one of the dangers for a small company that partners with a larger company. If the drug becomes a major seller then it may be easier for the large company to gobble up the smaller one than to continue paying royalties.

Disclosure: I own a few shares of Genentech.

Technorati Tags: Genentech, Novartis, omalizumab, pharma M&A, pharmaceutical deals, Tanox, Xolair

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As if the pharmaceutical industry needed more bad news. Seems Perrigo has recalled their 500 mg acetominophen caplets due to traces of metal in the product. Only the 500 mg caplets are affected, but that is still 11 million bottles.

Perrigo recalls 11 mln bottles of acetaminophen | News One | Reuters.com

At least Perrigo have made the announcement of the recall right on their home page. It should be pointed that no illness or injuries have resulted from this. It appears the metal came from a tabletting machine that the company noted was wearing prematurely.

The FDA has issued a statement on the matter and here is the list of recalled lots from the FDA website as well a list of places where the product is sold.

Technorati Tags: acetominophen, FDA, Perrigo, recall

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I always like to see it when a chemist actually gets to lead a major project. Now, Ralf Kaiser a physical chemist at the University of Hawaii will lead a NASA project to study the atmosphere of Titan, one of the moons of Saturn.

Chemist to lead study of Titan’s moon - Yahoo! News

This five year $2.5 million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation will use the NASA infrared telescope located on Mauna Kea on the big island of Hawaii. The hope is that by studying the atmosphere of Titan insight may be gather about earth’s early atmosphere. One of the major issue to be investigated is to see how hydrocarbons in the atmosphere absorb damaging ultraviolet radiation from the sun and preserve some compounds that are may play a role in the early development of molecules essential to life.

The first workshop is scheduled for February of 2007.

Other Resources

• Reaction Dynamics, University of Hawaii at Manoa
• Titanworkshop 2007
• SPACE.com — Titan: A World that Never Grew Up

Technorati Tags: chemist, NASA, space, Titan

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