To replace their flagship products, whose patents will soon expire, the big pharmaceutical companies are shopping among the small biotech companies. Among the most active is the British Glaxo. Behind him are the Merck and Johnson & Johnson groups
Over the past 12 months, the big pharmaceutical companies have put up over 40 billion dollars to win the rights to sell drugs developed by other companies. This is an increasingly common phenomenon, linked to the need of big pharma to face the expiry, already occurred or imminent, of the patents on the best-selling drugs. The use of products developed outside their own laboratories is also due to the numerous recent failures recorded in the pipelines of big pharma, which have archived several delays and some abandonment of studies on products that proved to be unsuitable. Among the names of the international companies that have made the most use of the purchase of third-party products there are leading names in the world pharmaceutical scene, starting with the largest English company, GlaxoSmithKline. The pharmaceutical company made in the UK is at the top of the ranking for the number of deals, with 26 licenses purchased for a total cost of over 11 billion dollars. The most important operation at a global level was concluded by the British company, which last July 14 concluded an agreement with Actelion on the license of the drug against insomnia Almorexant, which is in the last phase of experimentation and for which Glaxo could disburse over 3 billion dollars. Of these, however, only a small part was paid in advance, about 130 million dollars. This is a common practice in this type of deal, in which, due to fears relating to possible bankruptcy in the final stages prior to the marketing of the drugs, the value of the percentage of rights paid in advance is still very low, on average 43 million, out of an average deal value of 295 million. Furthermore, out of 417 license purchases recorded in the last 12 months, only 112 collaborations require an upfront payment. On the other hand, failures, even in the most advanced stages of clinical development, are always around the corner, as demonstrated by the latest mishap to Glaxo's own detriment, which saw the abandonment of tests on a phase II analgesic development, due to the failure to achieve the set effectiveness objectives. In that case, although the estimated value of the deal was almost 1.5 billion, Glaxo limited the loss to the 20 million paid as an advance. However, the British company is not the only one to focus heavily on shopping as well as internal R&D. In second place in the standings is another European, Merck, with 8 products for a total cost of 2.2 billion, and in third place is the first American on the list, Johnson & Johnson, with 9 deals for 2.1 billion. Also noteworthy is the presence of three Japanese companies in the top ten most active companies: Takeda, Eisai and Otsuka. A new confirmation of the willingness of Japanese big pharma to compete increasingly aggressively on the global scene, as demonstrated by the purchase announced in July of the second largest Indian pharmaceutical company, Ranbaxy, by the giant Daiichii Sankyo for 4.6 billion dollars. (all rights reserved) THE 2008 PHARMACEUTICAL LICENSE RANKING GlaxoSK Merck & Co. Johnson&Johnson Eli Lilly Sanofi-Aventis Pfizer Takeda Novartis Eisai
MF dated 08/21/2008, article by Luisa Leone p. 13
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