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.