QDIS Blog

Merck is moving away from a long time approach of internal organic growth to one of strategic acquisitions of small companies.

Merck & Co. keen on small acquisitions: executive - washingtonpost.com:

It will be interesting to keep an eye on this and see how they mange this. THey are getting late into the game and many deals, I’m sure are already in progress s they’ll have their work cut out for them finding those “hidden gems”. So many folks have already done deals I think they are ver many of these hidden gems remaining.

Technorati Tags: Merck, pharma M&A, pharmaceutical deals

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Newsday has an article that illustrates how tough it is to deal with conflicts of interest in this case between advocacy groups and the pharmaceutical companies.

Drug company payments to advocates an issue - Newsday.com:

While the FDA has cracked down on advisory committee members and their ties to drug companies, the same rules do not apply to advocacy groups. This can lead to a variety of problems and could lead to so called “turf groups” that is advocacy groups that are really just lobbying group for the drug companies.

I fully understand that these advocacy groups need money to survive and that they get money form the drug industry. However, it is hard for me to believe when they say there is no conflict of interest if they are unwilling to reveal who is giving how much.

The rules for conflict of interest are not clear and seemingly not very effective in many cases leaving this open for abuses in the future.

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Forbes has a report on Novartis purchasing the rights to NicQb, an anti-smoking vaccine from Cytos Biotechnology AG up to $500 million. The initial upfront payment is $29 million.

Novartis Buys Right to Experimental Drug - Forbes.com:

It will be interesting to watch and see how NicQb comes along. Currently it is in phase II studies but if successful could be a huge success. To my knowledge, this is the only vaccine being developed to combat nicotine addition.

Technorati Tags: anti-smoking vaccine, Cytos Biotechnology, NicQb, Novartis

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Since I use Ambien on occasion it was good to hear Dr. Reddy’s Lab is no approved to sell generic Ambien.

Dr. Reddy’s Gets Generic Ambien Approval - Forbes.com:

I was actually behind someone at my local pharmacy recently and they were concerned they thought they had been given the wrong prescription since they did not recognize the name. The pharmacist explained that it was the generic version of Ambien. This could be a big blow to Sanofi-Aventis since they had sales of $1.2 billion in the last year.

While Dr. Reddy’s Lab is the first, there will be several others and the competition will bring down the price. At least 10 other companies have approved generic versions.

Both my wife and I use it on occasion and I love it. I especially use it when traveling to get my body in sync with the local time. I should note that it has recently come under scrutiny and the labeling has been strengthened to warn about possible side effects.

Technorati Tags: Ambien, zolpidem tartrate, Sanofi-Aventis

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Seems my old company is now paying $10.5 million to resolve claims that they were promoting Trisenox for uses that were not approved.

Cell Therapeutics to pay $10.5 million:

I always thought they were leaving them selves open for this sort of problems back when I was working for them given the huge amount of off-label use. When a huge portion of your drug is being used for diseases it isn’t approved for, you are going to raise some eyebrows.

I should note that “Cell Therapeutics does not admit any wrongdoing in the matter”. And we all know what that really means.

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Express scripts is now reporting that in five eyars, by 2012, biotech drugs will account for 25% of all expenditures on drugs. The market was $54 billion in 2006 and is expected to reach $99 billion by 2010.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Business > Biotechnology — Spending on biotech drug prescriptions rising:

I think this shows you why so many big pharma companies are either buying or investing in biotech. Also, since there is currently no biogenerics industry and regulation is only now starting to be worked on it is no wonder.

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This news is somewhat dated now but the M&A activity in the pharmaceutical industry continues. Now AsraZeneca is purchasing Medimmune for $15.6 billion.

AstraZeneca to buy MedImmune for $15.6B - Yahoo! News

The two main products of interest are the children’s respiratory drug Synagis and a refrigerated version of FluMist inhaled influenza vaccine. This follows the current trend of major pharma increasing interest in vaccines. Novartis purchased Chiron and both Sanofi-Aventis and GlaxoSmithKline have sizable vaccine businesses.

MedImmune had until recently, actively resisted any such take-over moves. I’m not sure why they finally relented and went forward with AstraZeneca. Maybe they finally got the price they wanted.

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It isn’t surprising that the FDA rejected Merck’s NDA for Arcoxia, its follow on to Vioxx since an advisory committee already voted 20-1 against its approval. Forbes has an article on it.

FDA Rejects Merck’s Vioxx Successor - Forbes.com:

It is interesting to note though that Arrcoxia is on sale in 63 countries world-wide already. It be be interesting to see what effect if any it has on world-wide sales.

Technorati Tags: Arcoxia, Merck, Vioxx

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Replidyne is continuing to refine its phase III efforts for the antibiotic faropenem.

Replidyne Defines Preliminary Phase III Development Plan for Faropenem: Financial News - Yahoo!
Finance:

This new antibiotic may be the first to be approved under the FDA’s new community standards for antibiotics.

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Seems the Sanofi BMS merger talks haven’t been without some truth to them. Now the Times Online is reporting that there is a split on the Sanofi side over strategy

Sanofi board split over $54bn deal to acquire Bristol-Myers-Business-Industry Sectors-Health-TimesOnline

The Times has learnt that a disagreement over strategy has emerged between Jean-François Dehecq, the Sanofi chairman, who favours a transformational deal with BMS, and Gérard Le Fur, his younger chief executive, who has emphasised the need to focus on the group’s internal drug research and development programme.

The article goes on to say that the former view of merger with transformation is more probable. I think that it might be the less attractive strategy in the long run. I’m not a big fan of mergers since few ever really show the advantages that are promised.
I think the continuing trend of mega-mergers in the pharmaceutical industry will continue but I also do not think it will solve the long terms problems of the industry.

Technorati Tags: BMS, Bristol-Myers Squibb, pharma M&A, pharmaceutical deals, Sanofi-Aventis

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