Pharma Industry Archive

For those of you wondering why Eli Lilly would volunteer to have its stock crushed by the loss of cash and added debt required to buy ImClone, here’s one idea: The deal makes more sense if Lilly believes that prasugrel — a potential blockbuster blood thinner with the brand name Effient — won’t make it through the FDA. Lilly responded to “speculation” (i.e....

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Pfizer embraces generics — The company already produces generics through its Greenstone unit, holding about 4% of the global generics market, but wants to play a much larger role. Pfizer is evidently staking its enhanced plan on injectables and new formulations of existing products. [Source: WSJ Health Blog] Lilly CEO on risky bets: “This is what we do every day” — CEO...

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It will be interesting to see on Oct. 22 when Wyeth presents its third-quarter earnings whether the company actually managed to save some money through all the layoffs it is doing. Wyeth said back at the halfway point of the year that its cuts had somehow driven its costs up: The 2008 second quarter and first half charges included expenses of $155.2 million and $340.8 million, respectively,...

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It was a hilarious moment in Genentech’s third quarter earnings call on Tuesday. Despite the 800-lb gorilla in the room — Roche’s $89 a share bid for the company — Genentech execs said they wouldn’t answer any questions about the deal. Here’s what they said, verbatim: Regarding the Roche proposal, on August 13th a special committee of independent directors concluded, after...

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Sometimes a company does everything right and no one notices: Abbott Labs just unveiled a stellar third quarter and investors shrugged, leaving its stock flat. The basics you already know: Profit up 51 percent to $1.08 billion, sales up 17.6 percent to $7.5 billion. But check out what happened to the effectiveness of Abbott’s marketing dollars: It went through the roof. On the last three...

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GlaxoSmithKline buys Egpyt operations of Bristol-Myers Squibb — The deal, costing $210 million, will give GSK a 9 percent share of the country’s pharmaceuticals market. GSK is clearly putting its money where its mouth is, having focused its long-term strategy on emerging markets. [Source: FiercePharma] Genentech plays coy regarding Roche deal — During an earnings conference...

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The UK’s drug pricing control board, NICE, which says yea or nay to drugs that the National Health Service can use, said Tuesday it would not approve Tyverb for use on British patients. The interim decision reveals how political the world of cancer has become, with science taking a back seat to pricing and positioning. Tyverb is a GlaxoSmithKline drug that targets advanced breast cancer....

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Johnson & Johnson announced its third quarter earnings and reported good news: Sales were up year on year 6.4 percent to $15.9 billion. That topline number illustrates two things: how bad news can be concealed inside a diversified pharma play; and how dumb Pfizer was to sell J&J its consumer brands. J&J’s net income also increased, indicating that the company is managing the...

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Respectable biotech market share for J&J, Novo, Lilly — It is no surprise that Amgen and Roche/Genentech dominate the biotech market, each with a 21% share. Also doing well, however, are Johnson & Johnson, Novo Nordisk (each with 8%), and Lilly (5%), which lead the secondary pack. [Source: FierceBiotech] King extends (another) offer for Alpharma — Alpharma has rejected two...

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This is going to be big news — even though from a science point of view, it’s not big news: Scientists have found two genes in the human DNA strand that may be correlated with male hair loss. The business angle is that GlaxoSmithKline has a hand in the research. Before you go buying GSK stock, please bear in mind that baldness cures in the pharma business are a bit like fat cures:...

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