Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - (Page 2) From the Editor Will they or won’t they? A couple of weeks ago I paraphrased the former UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson and said “A week in pharma is a long time.” Having moved from a monthly to a weekly digital format, this phrase is constantly coming back to haunt me. For example, before we could put the finishing touches to Walter Armstrong’s article on ‘monster mergers’ (page 3) — which delves further into the motives and implications of Pfizer’s take-over of Wyeth — Merck went ahead and announced its $41 billion acquisition of Schering-Plough, requiring us to hastily amend the speculation on who will be the next Big Pharma company to take the merger plunge. Not that we should have been too surprised: indeed, at the beginning of the year I titled this column “Let the mergers begin.” But the speed with which these big deals have come to light leaves me a little nervous about publishing the remaining predictions on potential M&A activity. That said, the round-up comments from Pfizer’s rivals on whether a large M&A is on the cards for them is based on pronouncements from the CEOs themselves (see “Will They or Won’t They,” page 6). From those declarations, it seems fair to say that the rest of Big Pharma’s top ten is content to continue resisting a megamerger in favour of small or medium-sized acquisitions, at least in the short term (Roche and Genentech notwithstanding!) The only dissenters in this group appear to be Sanofiaventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb, whose CEOs aren’t exactly ruling it out. I hope, by next week, these predictions (or non-predictions) aren’t too out of date, but even if they are, it’s all grist to the mill during these volatile times. In which case it only remains to say, “Let the mergers continue!” For more on these news stories and all the latest breaking pharma news, look at our website www.pharmexeceurope.com Roche and Evotec to collaborate on depression treatment Roche and Evotec (Hamburg, Germany) have entered into an agreement for Phase II clinical development of EVT 101 in patients with treatment-resistant depression. The potential value of this transaction exceeds $300 million ( 237 million). Evotec will be responsible for conducting Phase II studies for EVT 101, a compound originally discovered by Roche and developed from discovery stages through clinical studies by Evotec. Evotec will also conduct Phase I safety and tolerability studies for EVT 103, a next generation compound to EVT 101. Roche will fully fund these development programmes. In addition, for the option to buy back rights to the entire EVT 100 family of compounds, Roche has agreed to pay Evotec an upfront fee of $10 million ( 7.9 million). Roche has committed to fund clinical development of EVT 101, as well as EVT 103, the follow-on compound to EVT 101. If Roche exercises its buy-back option after the completion of the Phase II study, Evotec will receive a $65 million ( 51.35) lump-sum payment from Roche in exchange for returning the asset, as well as the entire EVT 100 family to Roche. In the event that Roche decides not to exercise its buy-back option, Evotec will be granted exclusive worldwide rights to the entire EVT 100 family of compounds. Julian Upton jupton@advanstar.com Brad Wilson/Getty Images 1 NEWS 2 FROM THE EDITOR / NEWS 3 MEGAMERGERS 7 NEW SALES MODELS 10 UK NEWS 12 CALENDAR 13 ON THE MOVE CLICK TO SUBSCRIBE TO PHARM EXEC http://www.pharmexeceurope.com http://www.evotec.com http://www.pharmexeceurope.com/europharmexec/newsletter/subscribeNewsletter.jsp
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 Contents From the Editor Pfizer-Wyeth Sales News Calendar On the Move Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - Contents (Page 1) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - From the Editor (Page 2) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - Pfizer-Wyeth (Page 3) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - Pfizer-Wyeth (Page 4) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - Pfizer-Wyeth (Page 5) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - Pfizer-Wyeth (Page 6) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - Sales (Page 7) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - Sales (Page 8) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - Sales (Page 9) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - News (Page 10) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - News (Page 11) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - Calendar (Page 12) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - On the Move (Page 13)
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