Sanofi Aventis-Update

Last year in my blog I had mentioned something about Sanofi aventis penetration into emerging markets which include Latin American countries, India and China. For instance in Latin America it went into Merger and Acquisition of generic, India in similar way for acquisition of Shanta Biotech Hyderabad based Bio similar company and in China it went into to open its R&D centre for Biologics and generic production and now last week in a press release it was mentioned that Sanofi Aventis in going to invest around 5 Billion Yen in Japanese generic company Nichi- Iko Pharmaceutical.........now I guess next thing is that the company will try to strategize its marketing in South Asia.................. 

This week Update

Some 6-7 years back I had started working in the field of Molecular Biology and Fermentas and Geneart are the acronyms in our field.....This week there were following updates.............

- Life tech has purchased Germany based Gene-art for 47M USD, Gene-art has been into synthetic DNA, duplexes and oligos for a long time and with this acquisition Life tech has acquired capabilities from initial DNA synthesis to Bio-pharmaceutical pilot scale production.

- Thermo Fischer on the other hand into Biotechnology based instruments and storage and now it has acquired Fermentas (one of the market leaders in Restriction Digestion Technology, so now Novozyme and Danisco, New england Biolabs has touch competition ahead.

Now i am awaiting news from Qiagen as it has not done any major deals this quarter compared to last year 2009

Last week India Pharma Review

Till yesterday I was mad at finishing our final deliverable for a short term Client project and now as had a good 8 hrs sleep after long time so I am back to my old habit of doing my favourite thing……Writing my Blog………..Last week there was a major deal in the Indian subcontinent Abbott acquisition of Nicholas , earlier there were talks of GSK’s interest in acquiring Nicholas which never came through and GSk then went into getting stakes in Dr Reddy’s , Now I am awaiting one more million dollar deal in generic market in the Indian Subcontinent from Bristol Mayer Squibb, Merck and Pfizer ..As after this deal Abbott has got strong foothold in India and its time for Big daddies to gear up for next mega deal.

America's Most Popular drugs

Today after long time got a chance to write something for my Blog as there was a short term project going on and the file was delivered .....so now i am relaxing a bit ...............Last week and week end were quite hectic and now a days i am pursuing my passion for dance drama's .............Now about the pharma industry there were many small mergers and acquisitions in this fortnight but i am still waiting for the big players like Roche, BI, Bayer and Pfizer bigger M&A...........When i previewed the list and compared the Indian scenario i did not find a huge difference.

Today there was a update for America's Most Popular Drugs in IMS report. Following drugs are included in the list

Drug Name

Indication

Prescriptions 2009

Hydrocodone/ acetaminophen

Pain killer

128.2 M

Simvastatin

High cholesterol

83 M

Lisinopril

High Blood Pressure

81.3 M

Levothyroxine sodium

Thyroid disorders

66 M

Azithromycin

Antibiotics

53.8 M

Metformin

Diabetes

52 M

Lipitor

High cholesterol

51.5 M

Amlodipine

High blood pressure

50.9 M

Amoxicillin

Antibiotics

49.2 M

Hydrochlorothiazide

High Blood Pressure

47.1 M

Omeprazole

Heartburn

45.4 M

Alprazolam

Anxiety

44.4 M

Furosemide

High blood pressure

42.8 M

Metoprolol tartrate

Angina High blood pressure

40.5 M

Jaii Hooo

Yesterday Economic times headline "Dr Reddy's, Elder Pharma and Mankind Pharma to hire 3,000 people".....According to the sources

• Dr Reddy’s, Elder Pharma and Mankind Pharma each plan to hire 1,000 people in their marketing and sales force this year, Prabir Jha, global chief of HR at Dr Reddy’s, says the company had recruited 2,300 people last year.
• Lupin to add  800.
• GSK India had said it would hire about 300 people this year.......
• Novartis has also started hiring for its CI captive office in Hyderabad and Bristol Mayer Squibb for its Mumbai corporate office.

  According to the sources Indian local drug market is growing at over 17%. “So at even 15% growth, a Rs 10,000 crore market will be created next year...........

Monthly Update

This month has been quite hectic month for me, at the initial week of the month I had been to Kumbh Mela (A festival which is celebrated after every 12 years in Hindu religion) and then had been to Kolkata (City of Joy) for my birthday and Bengali happy new year celebrations, then came back and had to finish my client project and now I have got time to blog something and I am feeling good about it.



This month there were many updates Abbott billion dollar acquisition and day before yesterday the news was Charles river laboratories is planning to acquire Wuxiapptech, this collaboration will help Charles river penetrate more into the emerging markets thus helping it to develop capabilities in both preclinical and clinical stage services for varied industries which will range from diagnostics, markers, devices, biologics, chemicals and small molecules…..and sometime back while I was analyzing the list of fast developing CRO’s in Asia, Wuxi was contending in the Top 3 slot…………

Pharmaceitical M&A Report- Last 10 years

Today morning was reading a report on Mergers and Acquisitions and in the report it was mentioned that during these last 10 years there were 1, 717 M&A in pharma sector with the disclosed amount of $295 Billion and the biggest players includes

Roche - $46.8 Billion acquisition of Genentech

Astra Zeneca- $15.2 Billion deal for Med Immune

And also included in the list were GlaxoSmithKline, Amgen, Eli lily and company, Genzyme Corporation but the big fish which was missing from the list was our old patron in M&A Pfizer which last year went for the highest M&A deal ever.

Among Top 25 Biotechnology M&A four companies announced multiple acquisitions which includes Glaxo Smith Kline, Amgen Inc., Eli Lilly & Co and Genzyme Corporation and the report stated that most of the acquisitions were from publically traded sellers and buyers

Biotechnology Mergers and Acquisitions, 2000 to 2009

Year Dollars Committed Number Of Deals

2009 $47,523,349,040 193

2008 $93,879,257,347 148

2007 $42,105,127,700 145

2006 $36,407,170,500 115

2005 $23,196,902,050 113

2004 $6,764,873,000 96

2003 $16,681,231,200 128

2002 $3,274,727,708 96

2001 $20,150,840,000 85

2000 $5,076,797,094 52

Totals $295,060,275,639 1,171

In this report they mentioned that only about 18% of the biotechnology companies which were targeted in mergers and acquisitions announced in the span of 10 years ended December 31, 2009 were disclosing their revenues at the time of the M&A announcements.

Out of the top 25 largest biotechnology M&A announced during the 10-year period ended December 31, 2009 most of them were United States-based concern and some were European companies. In Year 2008 -2009 major M&A activity happened in United States preceded by Europe, Canada and Japan

This report also gave information related to Top states in United states with largest M&A activity they include California, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Washington and Texas.

Outside the U.S., the countries included in the list were Switzerland, Germany, England, Netherlands, Japan, Canada, France, Australia and Denmark.

Seller side point of view it gave additional information about various states with United states having highest number of M&A they include California, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Washington, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Texas.

Link:http://www.kerentech.com/?p=4504

Biosimilar Market

Some days back I received an email from some lady and she asked me some question related to biosimilars so I thought of jotting them down in my blog

I. What is some of the current challenges you are experiencing in your industry?
•Manufacturing part: Large investment required due to expensive and sensitive manufacturing process with difficulty in reproducibility of results.
•Huge clinical trial development cost
•Regulatory process till now not clearly defined in regulatory market Europe (EMEA) and United states (FDA)

II. What are the top 3 things that should improve?
According to me the following things should improve for dissimilar in Indian scenario they include
•Better clinical studies prioritization and development with expertise in filing in regulated market
•Comprehensive competitive intelligence or due diligence for the product portfolio with establishment of state of the art manufacturing process
•Consistent portfolio strategy with effective branding and marketing skills.

III.What is upcoming future opportunities that you see in the field of biosimilars?
In accordance to indian scenario the oppurtunities associated with biosimilars include
•Cost saving
•Higher margins and better profitability structure as blockbuster drugs are coming off patent.

PS: The 12 years exclusivity for biopharmaceutical drug in United States I don’t see a good market potential of bio similar in United States in the coming decade as compared to European bio similar approvals.