ChronicleMIDWEEK
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HO-HO-HOLD THE LITIGATION: DRUGMAKERS ARE IN THE SPIRIT TO SETTLE LAWSUITS
AS CONRAD BLACK (right) WILL TELL YOU, litigation can be quite a bother. With that possibly in mind, drugmakers have been busy tidying up legal affairs this week. Toronto-based Biovail agreed to pay $138 million to make a stateside class-action suit go away. The matter involved hot-headed investors who thought the company exaggerated its 2003 claims of the efficacy of diltiazem (Cardizem LA), going so far as to use the phrase “outright accounting fraud.” Biovail helmer Doug Squires, noting all but $85 million will be covered by insurance, says the aggravation simply isn’t worth it. In an unrelated matter, Novo Nordisk Monday (12/10) settled a lawsuit against Pfizer claiming that Pfizer’s inhalable insulin (Exubera) infringed patents owned by Novo Nordisk. Since Pfizer has already eighty-sixed Exubera, at a cost of billions, the suit may have seemed just a tad unnecessary. More info =>
BIG PHARMA JOBS ITS NEXT ACT: NOVARTIS SHRINKS, GSK BUSY IN LAB, MERCK THINKS IT KNOWS BEST
SEVERAL MAJOR DRUGMAKERS this week pledged to fix that broken barn door: the one the horse had escaped through some time ago. (Note to the metaphor-impaired: the barn door represents the industry’s traditional practices, and the runaway horse is symbolic of the investment community’s desire to get as far away as possible. Watch for more unbearable cleverness, later in this newsletter.) Novartis CEO Daniel Vasella tells the Wall Street Journal he’s planning to reduce his company’s headcount in February, but he’s describing it as a streamlining. Vasella’s fighting a bloated staffing structure, and says he wants no more than six levels of job classification from top to bottom. >> Meanwhile, GlaxoSmithKline plans to shake up its lab operation, according to R&D boss Moncef Slaoui. He plans for half the company’s pipeline to come from in-licensing deals and other external sources, compared with the current level of 10 per cent (see next item.) He tells the Financial Times newspaper of London he’s also preparing to streamline his staff and procedures: “In every single project we look at we could have reached the critical decision with… 50 to 60 per cent fewer experiments. In a bureaucracy… if you ask more questions, no one will blame you for not asking them. But we just can’t afford it. In the modern world we… generate lots of information we don’t know what to do with.” >> Elsewhere, Merck boss Dick Clark seems determined to rock, roll and remember, pushing ahead with trials of antilipemic candidate anacetrapib and antiobesity candidate taranabant, as well as trying to convince the FDA to switch golden oldie lovastatin (Mevacor) to an o.d. OTC. Call Clarkie audacious: Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventis dropped their similar respective programs, and MDs seem opposed to the idea of selling statins without a scrip. More info =>
GLAXOSMITHKLINE PENS $1.4 BILLION CA RESEARCH DEAL
FOLLOWING THE COMPANY’S YEAR-OLD “Centre of Excellence for External Drug Discovery” program, GlaxoSmithKline yesterday (12/11/07) inked a $1.4 billion pact with California biotechie OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, to noodle out Ca stem-cell antibody Txs. The deal also gives GSK an option on four monoclonal-antibody Rx candidates. In a separate deal, GSK signed a $215 million agreement with Dutch Rx developers Galapagos, to research six anti-infective targets. More info=>
A WONDERFUL TIME TO BE SMALL, AS ACQUISITION TARGETS ARE IN DEMAND
SMALLISH AND MID-TIER DRUGMAKERS are being acquired at an accelerating pace (see next item,) as the year draws to a close. Monday (12/10) Adams Respiratory Therapeutics of New Jersey, maker of Mucinex and Delsym, said it would be acquired by Reckitt Benckiser, the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate perhaps best known for selling French’s bottled mustard. Adams currently has annual turnover of around $332 million, but increased sales from only $13 million in four years. Chief Reckitt-eer Bart Becht tells the Financial Times: “Consumer healthcare is principally a fast-moving consumer goods business and an attractive one.” >> Elsewhere on the same day, Tokyo-based drugmaker Eisai paid $3.9 billion to take out MGI Pharma of Minneapolis, a maker of Ca Txs. The price-tag places a 39 per cent premium on the recent value of MGI’s publicly traded shares. More info =>
NEW INVESTMENT EFFORT AIMS TO STAND UP FOR THE LITTLE GUY
LACKING PIPELINE PROSPECTS, Big Pharma’s frenzy to acquire biotechies is increasing, creating new opportunities for some. Yesterday (12/11), a group of Anglo-American moneybags launched a pair of private-equity companies aimed at getting in the middle of future deals. Celtic Pharma plans to buy Rx candidates in Phase I and sell them in Phase IIb, using a bankroll of $1.5 billion. Supremo John Mayo says his outfit’s mission is to help small biotechs grow. He tells Reuters news agency: “They don’t have the money and they don’t have the people. Our job is to support them in handling relations with regulators, designing clinical trials and in sorting out their manufacturing.” More info =>
OTTAWA GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO SUBOXONE, SCHERING-PLOUGH’S NEW TX FOR OPIOD DEPENDENCE
HEALTH CANADA yesterday (12/11) okayed buprenorphine-naloxone (Suboxone, Schering-Plough) as substitution Tx for opioid drug dependence in adults. Suboxone, a narcotic, is sublingual, and contains naloxone to deter intravenous misuse. According to Schering-Plough, the product is the first new Tx for opioid dependence in more than 30 years. More info =>
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