Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - November/December 2007 - (Page 18) 18 Special Report Nov/Dec 2007 Pharmaceutical Executive Europe A Year in Pharma Sarah Houlton outlines the deals, collaborations and controversies that shaped the pharmaceutical industry in 2007, and examines how the land lies as we prepare for 2008. fter the three mergers in a week at the end of September 2006, one might have thought that all would be quiet on the amalgamation front in 2007. Those three deals — Nycomed bought Altana for €4.5 billion, Merck took over Serono for €13.5 billion and UCB and Schwarz entered into a €4.4 billion merger — certainly shook up the landscape of European mid-sized pharma companies. And while several Big Pharma companies — notably Roche and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) — have ruled out further mega-merger activity, speculation continues about what the next major acquisition will be. One big takeover deal took everyone by surprise back in March. Akzo Nobel had planned an estimated €9 million IPO for its drug business, Organon, but at the last minute accepted an offer of €11 billion from US company Schering-Plough (SP) instead. While some analysts believe SP overpaid for the Netherlands-based unit, there was no doubt the five drugs it added to its late stage pipeline reduced the company’s reliance on its joint venture with Merck over a cholesterollowering combination drug containing SP’s cholesterol absorption inhibitor Ezetrol (ezetimibe) and Merck’s now off-patent simvastatin. A 2007’s other large takeover, which analysts again believe may have been too expensive, was AstraZeneca’s $15.6 billion takeover of US-based MedImmune. The deal gives AZ a foothold in the growing vaccine market, with products including the inhaled influenza vaccine FluMist. Those two aside, European pharma companies have been acquiring smaller technology-based companies to expand their capabilities, rather than indulging in more mega-mergers. A number of these acquisitions moved companies into the more biologic areas of pharma: GSK paid £230 million for privately-owned Domantis (UK), which focuses on therapeutic antibodies. Rather than the large monoclonal antibodies that must be given parenterally, Domantis is working on domain antibodies — smaller functional binding units that can be given topically, by inhalation or even, conceivably, orally. AZ also acquired UK biotech Arrow Therapeutics, which develops anti-virals. As well as restructuring its R&D activity into five therapeutic areas, Roche also expanded its technology base in 2007, with the
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