Novartis new alliance.........................................

In early 40s to late 60s companies used to focus on antibacterial and antibiotics then 70's came the diabetics drugs then 80s and 90s was the era of AIDS drugs, early 2000 HINI drugs and now the focus is on New MAbs and Biopharma drugs for cancer therapy, Most of the top 10 companies in the world are spending around 15 to 20 % of there allocated research grants into cancer therapy. As estimated in some reports this segment is growing at the rate of 34% annually. After Pfizer and GSK's strategic mergers and agreements today Novratis has announced that it has entered into agreement with Forma Therapeutics (Headquarter in Cambridge and operations in North America and Asia), this deal will help Novartis to use Forma's expertise in cell based screening technology and chemistry based drug development. Already Forma has long time relation with Novartis as Novartis Option Fund has already invested around $4 million in March of 2008 on the later.

Animal Healthcare..........................

There have been series of M&A in animal healthcare, Last month in India there was acquisition of Wockhardt animal healthcare, In America some reports have stated that Pfizer is also planning to sell part of its animal business and likewise Merck was also going to sell its Animal healthcare division................Today's reports state that Sanofi Aventis in planning to acquire the animal division of Merck ...................Sanofi is trying hard to make its presence in animal healthcare :)

Amgen .................

Amgen yesterday reported that its profit has risen to 40% compared to Q1 of current fiscal year and the reason being massive restructuring in the organization which even lead to layoff of its employees. Amgen has already positioned itself in top 3 contenders in cancer therapy with its massive pipeline of different types of MAbs (Monoclonal antibodies) and today in Wall Street the news was that GSK is collaborating with Amgen in marketing Denosumab in Europe which is for Postmenopausal Osteoporosis, Amgen is going to receive around $120 Million from this deal. On the other hand this deal will strengthen GSK positions in global cancer therapy segment as its competitor Pfizer is rapidly expanding its portfolio in caner therapy segment.

Agilent Acquires Varian ............................

For those of us who worked in Analytical chemistry, QC and biopharmaceuticals upstream and downstream these two companies were our common lingos........Varian and HPLC columns you will find in every pharma and biotechnology companies in India....

Yesterday 27th July, 09, Agilent technologies declared that it is going to purchase Varian for a deal worth $1.5 Billion. This deal will help Agilent to penetrate Pharmaceutical and Biopharma market and help it in expanding it's portfolio for nuclear magnetic resonance, imaging, and vacuum technology markets.

While Agilent technologies is a leader in food safety and Varian on the other hand is a leader for energy industry, and has wide range of products for environmental analysis.

Both the companies head quarters are based in Palo Alto-based, While Varian employs some 3,600 people worldwide with revenue of $1 billion in fiscal 2008. The later company Agilent technologies have around 19,000 employees worldwide with revenue of nearly $5.8 billion in the same fiscal year.

Sanofi planing to acquire Shantha Biotech

Shantha Biotech is again in the market this time not for big companies looking for stakes but now the news is that Sanofi-Aventis is planning to acquire Shantha Biotech in a deal which is worth $748 Million. This deal will help out Sanofi-Aventis to expand its vaccine line of business in emerging markets as Shantha has its presence throughout Pacific, Africa and Latin America, and Sanofi is keen in developing its portfolio for vaccines for diseases which has afflicted these regions. These diseases include cholera, diphtheria and tetanus. As of now Shantha biotech is expected to generate revenue worth $90 Million by this year and has strong pipeline for vaccines which include vaccines for rotavirus, conjugated typhoid and human papillomavirus (HPV)……GSK is going to have good lot of money in its pocket as recently it had acquired 61% stakes in Shantha Biotech

Bristol Mayer Squibb first move in M&A this year...........................

After Big Daddies like Pfizer, Merck and GSK’s billion dollar Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)....I was awaiting for news from BMS (Bristol Mayer Squibb). For sometime news was that BMS has cash flow for around 4 Billion and was planning to acquire some company by this summer, Earlier the news was that BMS has interest in Cougar Biotechnology which was later acquired by Johnson and Johnson for $1 Billion and then today Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said it is buying out Medarex Inc. for $2.4 billion for filling its pipeline of experimental biological drugs and this deal will provide Bristol-Myers full ownership of the skin cancer drug ipilimumab, which it has jointly developed with Medarex.

Derma Next target..........................

The world dermatological market generated total sales revenues of over $20 Billion last year. Over the past few months there have been many M&A happening in this segment. Firstly the news was of GlaxoSmithKline acquisition of Stiefel Laboratories, for $2.9 billion in cash and secondly one of the major derma player Graceway pharmaceuticals a portfolio company of GTCR Golder Rauner has entered into an Acquisition and License Agreement with Pfizer by which the former will be acquiring worldwide commercial rights for three investigational dermatological molecules from Pfizer. Out of the three , two are used for treatment of oily skin and acne - an early stage Stearoyl CoA Desaturase 1 (SCD1) Inhibitor and a Cholesterol-Acyltransferase (ACAT) Inhibitor, both of which are in Phase II clinical trials and the last one is an Activin-Like Kinase 5 (ALK-5) Inhibitor, currently in early pre-clinical development stage.

Pfizer league of Top3 for cancer therapy by 2018

According to WHO report cancer will lead to death of more than 11.4 million people globally by year 2030 and some market reports state that revenue in this segment has crossed over to 11% from previous year which is worth $50 Billion.

At present Roche is market leader for cancer treatment globally, with a market share of 34.9% (equivalent to $13 Billion sales) in 2007, some other major players include Amgen, Sanofi-Aventis, Merck KgaA, Novartis, Schering-Plough and Eli Lilly.


Currently Pfizer is ranked in seventh position in cancer drug segment with annual sales of around $2.5 Billion, According to some sources it is said that Pfizer is planning to position itself in Top 3 by year 2018 as from some years Pfizer has started spending around 20 per cent of its annual research budget for developing novel cancer therapies and now it has around 20+ drugs in its cancer treatment pipeline out of which 8 are in Phase II clinical trials and 13 in Phase I clinical trials.

Big Pharma's hunting the generics.......................

Big pharma daddy's pipeline is drying up in the coming decades and beacuse of generic competion many large pharmaceuticals are loosing into their profit margins, so the stratergy both GSK and Pfizer are following is that they atr activeky hunting out for good profitable generic companies in the emerging market.

for sometime around GSK has been making headlines with many smaller and medium size generic and bio similar acquisition and now pfizer is rolling uo its sleeves and has started its stratergia acquisitions in the emerging markets such as Turkey in Middle east. Some reports have stated that Pfizer has announced that it wants to have generic drugs revenue to be more than 3 Biollion by year 2012.

Nycomed Big Move .................................

Nycomed is going for a big move it is planning to acquire Solvay pharmaceutical, this deal will boost Nycomed sales to more than $9 Billion and will help Nycomed to diversify their portfolio in gastrointestinal, CNS, and cardiac areas.

Nycomed after this deal can penetrate its operations in Europe and in the emerging markets such as India. Some reports say that Nycomed which is controlled by Nordic Capital and Credit Suisse Group AG is interested in selling its shares with Initial public offering later this year as IPO will help them to repay their investors and this deal will also help them move into league of bigger and diversified pharmaceutical company.

Japanese pharma on M&A move ............................

After Ranbaxy was acquired by Daichii Sankyo last year than this year again at perhaps same time another Japanese company Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical bought Miami-based Noven Pharmaceutical for $430 million. Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical is interested in expanding in the U.S., Hisamitsu agreed to pay $16.50 a share, a 38 percent premium on the company's 50-day close. Hisamitsu plans to make the company with specialization in hormone therapies to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Japanese firm, Today’s headline is that one more Japanese firm and Nycomed are in the early second round of an auction for all of Solvay's pharmaceuticals business.....this time we have Japanese in race with US and UK based companies in global M&A.

US Senate vote........for Biologicals

As mentioned by me in my earlier blog that Senator Ted kennedy wanted 13.5 years of IP protection for biological, everyone was waiting for this amendment. Yesterday the US senate Health, Education, Labour and Pensions Committee approved an amendment that will be protecting biotech innovator companies from bio similar competition for 12 years. The voting favoured--the biotech industry with a big win which was struggling to gain a long period of marketing protection.

The 12 years of data exclusivity will establish reasonable period and will ensure continuation of biomedical innovation and will provide the benefits of competition," said BIO President Jim Greenwood.

Strides Lab into M&A Activity..........

Strides labs(Bangalore) which is into manufacturing of sterile injectables and oral dosage formulations with global presence in Latin America, Africa, US, Southeast Asia and also has several manufacturing facilities overseas is interested in selling stakes of its branded-generics pharmaceutical company.

Potential investors may think of investing in the specialty pharma unit, which is focused on manufacturing of sterile injectables as one report states that the global injectable market is estimated to grow from USD 150 billion in year 2008 to USD 245 billion by 2012.

Recession again from back door..............................

Last weekend i had been for a small trip to Jaipur (Pink city of India), In the heart of the city near the choti chowpad area i saw a temple in which in front it was written temmple for "God of employment",I was surprised and then thought, Probably what we are expecting about good times to happen soon is not going to happen, it will take one year more for things to settle, As of now for the past one month i am hearing that people are made to quit there job all over US and things are likewise happening in india too :(

Last week majour surprise came from genetech end and in India many small companies are asking people to work without pay.....

I think we all have to watch and pray to "God of employement" so that people jobs are safe and secured till the next recession cycle which is going to happen soon :(

Cadila's New Venture .......................

Cadila Pharmaceuticals (India) yesterday announced that it is venturing With Novavax, Inc (United States). The new venture will be called as CPL Biologicals Pvt. Ltd, this company will focus into development, production of vaccines by using one of its own kind cutting-edge vaccine technology and will sell products like seasonal influenza vaccine, novel vaccines against dengue fever and chikungunya fever based on Novavax's virus-like-particle (VLP) vaccine technology and also will try to develop pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccine in India which Novavax is developing in United States.

The company will thus join the league of vaccine production companies such as Serum institute of India and Bharat Immunological which are already provider for high quality affordable vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics by carrying out world-class research and innovative manufacturing process for current global health challenges.

New Biopharmaceutical Exclusivity Proposal……………….

For sometime there has been hue and cry from biopharmaceutical companies in United States regarding the extension of period of exclusivity for Biopharmaceutical drugs from 12 years to 14 years, this exclusivity will not only help these companies to protect them from Biosimilar drugs competition but will also give theses companies time to invest on development of new medicines.

Yesterday there was news that a senior democrat Mr. Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Senate health committee, in United States proposed an extension of 13.5 years for these biopharmaceuticals drugs for their protection from biosimilar competition.

Under this proposal Biopharmaceuticals will be receiving nine years of protection, plus up to four-and-a-half additional years for new uses or pediatric studies.

US Stimulus package for Life Science VC's

According to Money Tree report of Price water Cooper house there was 33% decline in the funding for life sciences industry in Q4 of year 2008 and number of deals count also reduced to 185 deals which is 22% less from Q3 of 2008. After this huge economic melt down in Q3 of 2008, federal administration in United States has been planning for Stimulus package for life sciences industry based VC's. And yesterday a report was published about this stimulus package for life sciences industry based VC’s.

There are many criteria’s to be followed for applying for this stimulus package.

Each VC firm will be entitled to receive federal money based on the size of the funds that it manages and those VC firms are only eligible which are managing funds of more than $30 Million and have been operating their business for at least last 5 years.

The VC stimulus fund will be implemented by Department of the Treasury, the Department of Commerce, or another federal agency capable of managing the program.

Note: For this Program the federal government will not use its power to influence investment decisions made by VC firms which accept stimulus package. All investment decisions and strategies will be previewed by the general partners managing the government-backed firms.

India next Biotech Hub by Year 2020!!!!

Yesterday I was reading an article where it was written that Biotechnology revenue for India is going to reach to $2 Billion by year 2010, In India Department of Biotechnology (New Delhi) has taken many initiative for pooling up rich talent and provide platform for young budding entrepreneurs, Biocon (Bangalore based biotechnology company) also recently formed an alliance with Indian School Business (Hyderabad) and it was informed that Biocon is going to invest around $2 Million for developing new ventures and idea generation in the field of Biotechnology.


What we are not considering is that though we have fund allocation for start-ups but theses companies do need basic equipments for developing their Research and Development? Do we have companies in India which can supply used instruments or auction sites related to resale of the same?

This concept of reselling of used instruments is quite successful in United States and there are many companies which have developed in an around west coast in United states. Why don't we take initiative to develop this concept in India? These companies will not only support the development of more research companies but will lead to employment generation in our country where more than 10,000 Biotechnology graduates pass every year, let's strive to make India next Biotech Hub by year 2020 :)

Biocon Story...................................

Year-1980 (Bangalore- India): 5 people collaborated to start a company in a garage, out of the 5 there was one girl who had just finished her MS from Australia and was looking for better job opportunities in India, later on the company went on to be known globally as Biocon....and out of the 5 collaborators most of us know only about Kiran Shaw Majumdar who is face of Biocon to the global scenario.

What I like about this strong lady is that she is "Brand Equity" in herself, Kiran Shaw Majumdar later on also initiated Bio spectrum ( India’s Biotechnology Magazine), Bangalore Bio and bioinformatics centre in Bangalore and is also associated with many other things. She is also part of Forbes Top 100 most influential woman's global list.....Kudos to her...............

Glaxo emerging market portfolio...........

GSK is exploring in a big way in the emerging markets, firstly last month it signed an alliance with Dr Reddy's of India for marketing 100 branded products in the generic segment then secondly it went on to set up manufacturing plant in Singapore and china for production of H1N1 vaccine. Last but not the least it is venturing into Middle East market by buying Bristol-Myers Squibb's 11 branded generics drugs in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Libya and Yemen for $23.2 million.

Its time for Sanofi and Astrazeneca to rethink for their portfolio.......