Industry Overview
In the first quarter of 2009, the consolidation process in the healthcare sector continued and three large acquisitions in the pharmaceutical industry were announced or concluded. The world’s largest pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced plans to acquire its competitor Wyeth for a purchase price of US$ 68 billion. The US pharma company Merck, Inc. announced plans to acquire Schering-Plough for approximately US$ 41 billion. Finally, Roche brought to a close the acquisition of Genentech, developer of multiple leading antibody products such as Herceptin®, Raptiva®, Rituxan® and Xolair®, bidding US$ 46.8 billion for the remaining 44 % of the US biotech group’s shares. The transaction was originally announced in the third quarter 2008. Smaller antibody-related transactions included the acquisition of Australian Arana Therapeutics Limited by US-based Cephalon, Inc. for a purchase price of US$ 318 million and the merger agreement between Pharmexa A/S, Denmark, and Affitech AS in Norway.
Looking at product-development-related newsflow, GlaxoSmithKline and Genmab have successfully submitted applications to the FDA and the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) to approve a fully human antibody for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In Germany, TRION Pharma, Munich, has received a positive opinion by the EMEA Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use recommending approval of an antibody derivative for the treatment of malignant ascites.
The market for research reagents could potentially benefit from President Obama’s commitment to increasing the US Government’s investment in scientific research. The recently announced stimulus package included over US$ 20 billion in additional research spending, 40% of which is earmarked for research grants provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).