Pfizer......Cancer drug for Pets........

Pfizer yesterday got approval for Palladia to treat advanced mast cell tumours in dogs, the first of its kind for treating cancer in canines. Researchers at Pfizer recruited around 150 dogs for the pivotal pet study, and observed that Palladia caused reduction or disappearance of tumours in 43 percent of cases. Less than one in ten dogs in the placebo arm had a similar response in the said pivotal trial. I think that it is high time for Indian biopharmaceuticals as they can strategise and focus on venturing into these specialized segment, thus diversifying their services to the society.

GSK ------interested in venturing with startups

GSK India is one of the best payers in Indian Pharmaceutical sector......and news is that GSK global is venturing into collaboration with start-ups and funding companies with new ideas........great going ...........I don’t think recession had any severe implication in pharma segment........as now bigger sharks are venturing as angel investors.

GSK Deal.......................this week.....

Last month GSK alliance with Pfizer for collaboration for HIV drugs was part of the news stand and this week again GSK made headlines by announcing its collaboration with Concert Pharmaceutical. In this deal Concert will be receiving around $35 million in upfront payments, including a $16.7 million equity investment and GSK will get CTP-518, a protease inhibitor for the treatment of HIV which is expected to enter Phase I clinical trials in the second half of 2009, a preclinical compound for chronic renal disease, and a third research product in Concert's pipeline..........
I think its time for Gilead and BMS to develop and add more Drugs in their existing drug discovery pipeline, so that in the coming decades these companies will be able to sustain their position in HIV domain.

BMS in news after long time

After BMS deal with Indian biopharmaceutical last year for co-development of drug molecules, BMS is now eying on stakes in Ireland based Élan pharmaceutical as the later is seeking for finances for drug for treating Alzheimer’s. BMS is looking for strategic deals for some months as its allies have been involved in many deals in 1st and 2nd quarter of this year.

Good going BMS................................................

Cancer Mega deals last and this Quarter...........

Past Quarter and this quarter there have been huge number of alliances and mega deals in oncology segment, in rough terms the total comes to around 3 to 4 Billion. What I have observed that the top 10 mega pharma companies are becoming the major players by acquiring or funding smaller companies from drug development to clinical trials in oncology segment.

There are quite many challenges in oncology trials which I will capture later in some other article, so now a days bigger pharma companies are collaborating to incur the cost equally, for example Merck and Astrazeneca as per today's 1st June news headlines are collaborating for Merck's MK-2206 and AstraZeneca's AZD6244, both of which are still in very early development.

Shantha biotech...name is enough

Do we know the name of the first Indian biopharmaceutical company to launch Hepatitis B vaccine? The name which comes into my mind is of Shantha Biotech.

This company was started way back in early 1990's by Dr. K I Varaprasad Reddy with the sole purpose of developing efficacious but cost effective vaccines and therapeutics that are within the reach of the common man as mentioned in their website......and in reality it did happen.

Initial days were tough for this small company as Banks and financial institutions refused to fund the project. The company atfirst began modestly as an R&D outfit at the Osmania University under the industry-university interactive programme in 1993 and later moved to Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) until an independent R&D facility was built. Then in mid 90's it got financial aid from angel investor, with that money Shantha was able to launch India’s first r- DNA Hepatitis-B vaccine. And there has been no looking back ever since.

Then in 2005 Shantha Biotechnics Limited (Shantha) become a part of the Merieux Alliance group after MA acquired the majority shareholding in the company in November, 2006, ie around 60% stake and yesterday the news was that GSK is also eying on having 51% stake in this company.

The game is not yet over, we have to wait for more...................

Ranbaxy once upon a time......

The story goes like this, Ranbaxy was once a dream company for every pharma and biotech graduate in India as it was one of the best payers according to Indian pharma industry standard, though the company was started in late 40's, it came into limelight in late 80's and early 90's.

I think it was over all effort of Mr DS Brar (who later on became its CEO) and his team of managers who moved it to No 1 position in Indian generic market.

During Mr DS Brar era Ranbaxy entered the United States, the world's largest pharmaceuticals market and now the biggest market for Ranbaxy, accounting for 30% of Ranbaxy sales.

What I feel is that there were many issues which lead to downfall of Ranbaxy as a company first it was removal of Mr DS Brar who created wonders in the organization, than Litigation for Lipitor with big sharks like Pfizer and lastly throat to throat competition in between generic players which effected Ranbaxy’s sales in a major way, so the owners thought of diversifying in year 2002 or so and they then ventured into hospitals and diagnostic test market.

The news of Ranbaxy being acquired by Diachii in early part of 2008, not only surprised the employee's of the company but it shattered the ego of overall nation. As Ranbaxy was pride of India.

Day before yesterday the news was that Daichii has taken charge of Ranbaxy management completely and Malvinder Singh (Whose family gained $2 billion or so after the deal) stepped down from top post at Ranbaxy Laboratories.

Pfizer on move :)

Pfizer on a move to acquire Intercytex whish is a fully integrated cell technology platform for development of living, human cell-based technology for marketing into commercially viable market.

Intercytex has four products in development:

VAVELTA®, a skin repair and rejuvenation product intended to improve the appearance feel and function of damaged skin, commercially available in accredited centres in UK

SHEF-1, development of a stem cell line suitable for differentiation into retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, this project is in collaboration with the London Project to Cure Blindness

ICX-SKN, being developed as a skin graft replacement for burns and acute wounds, Phase I trials completed

ICX-TRC, a hair regeneration product, in Phase II trials.

All Intercytex' products are derived from unmodified human cell.

Intercytex commenced operations in 2000 and currently employs around 50 staff. In addition to its head office in Cambridge, UK, it has its own GMP compliant clinical production facility plus research and development laboratories in Manchester, UK and a dedicated stem cell research laboratory in Sheffield, UK. Additional laboratories are located in Boston, US.