PharmaDeals Review Business Commentaries
Dr Fintan Walton, PharmaVentures’ CEO, provides monthly comment on topical biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry issues. Includes access to Fintan’s commentaries broadcast on PharmaTelevision.
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Nuvelo: the Vindication of a Merger
From issue 68 of the PharmaDeals Review (2006-02-01)
The 2003 merger between Hyseq and VARIAGENICS created a company, Nuvelo, that was pinning its hopes on a single therapeutic candidate in Phase I development. This candidate, alfimeprase, a thrombolytic drug, is now in Phase III trials, is predicted to become a blockbuster and has just been licensed to Bayer HealthCare, thus justifying the faith shown in it originally. The financial terms of this deal do not seem excessive at first, but the conditions that Nuvelo have received demonstrate the negotiating power of a company with a potential blockbuster to offer. This feature also examines how investors have suddenly realised the long-term potential offered by Nuvelo and its maturing pipeline.
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Deal Making in the New Healthcare Landscape
From issue 68 of the PharmaDeals Review (2006-02-01)
Over the past few years, the world has undergone considerable changes in the area of pricing and reimbursement (P&R). Escalating healthcare expenditure has led payer organisations to focus increasingly on cost containment. Although the reality today is that every new drug trying to gain market access has to prove its clinical, economic and even social value, too few companies involved in in-licensing activities for new products include a P&R assessment in their deal making process. A new PharmaVentures' report, Deal Making in the New Healthcare Landscape: Leveraging your Deal through Pricing and Reimbursement Considerations, will teach you how to use this new P&R reality to gain a competitive advantage when licensing a product, and will explain how each factor has an impact on the value of a deal. This article highlights parts of three of the seven chapters of the report.
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Therapy Focus: Antiplatelet Therapy
From issue 68 of the PharmaDeals Review (2006-02-01)
The role of platelets in the development of acute and chronic complications of cardiovascular disease has long been known, and therapies directed against platelets are currently in vogue. With a huge global market and novel targets against which to generate compounds, could it be that large pharma is seeing the potential for the next blockbuster drug? The future development of antiplatelet therapies will depend on targeted drug design based on an understanding of the role of platelets in haemostasis and pathology. This article discusses drugs in clinical development that target platelet adhesion, inhibit agonist receptors or act on miscellaneous targets, with respect to their future blockbuster potential.
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Roche: Recognising BioCryst's Potential?
From issue 67 of the PharmaDeals Review (2006-01-01)
After the bad experience of an unfruitful deal with Johnson & Johnson, the US biotech BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Swiss pharma F. Hoffmann-La-Roche. Through the deal, Roche is gaining a licence to develop and commercialise BioCryst's Phase I purine nucleoside polyphosphorylase (PNP) inhibitor BCX-4208 for the prevention of acute transplant rejection and the treatment of autoimmune diseases, in particular psoriasis. Financially, the deal is large, particularly for a Phase I compound. It seems, however, that the value of the deal does not fairly reflect the risk that Roche is taking on by licensing such an early-stage compound; therefore, the reasons why it entered into the deal may not be what they appear on the surface.
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Guidant's Takeover: The Pace Quickens
From issue 67 of the PharmaDeals Review (2006-01-01)
It is approximately twelve months since Johnson & Johnson approached Guidant with a merger proposition worth over US$25 B. However, the agreement into which the two companies entered spelt the beginning of a prolonged period of negotiation, and by mid-December 2005 it seemed likely that J&J would be rejected by Guidant's shareholders in favour of an unsolicited US$25 B offer made by Boston Scientific Corporation. This feature reviews the recent deal making history of the three companies involved in these merger discussions, and the series of events that put Guidant in the unusual position of having to choose between suitors.
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