Bio Saga Blog - A Chronicle of Life Sciences & Informatics

Pfizer Inc., whose serial mega-mergers have disappointed investors, may now be headed in the opposite direction. The New York-based drug maker may spin off various businesses, including its consumer-health and generic-drug units, in deals that result in a 40% contraction in its revenue base, Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Tim Anderson wrote in a research note Monday, after meeting with Pfizer Chief Executive Ian Read. The mounting speculation of potential Pfizer divestitures helped lift its shares to a 52-week high Monday, recently trading up nearly 2% at $19.82. "Investors are desperate to see pharmaceutical companies take bold steps...to try and break the cycle of underperformance," Anderson said. He added that Read and Pfizer's board "appear eager to do the same and dismantling the business will accomplish that goal." Pfizer spokeswoman Joan Campion said Monday, "As we previously stated on Feb. 1, we're conducting a portfolio review in 2011, and the re...

Creating an alliance to deliver insulin treatments worldwide, Biocon and  Pfizer  have entered into a global commercialisation agreement. Pfizer will make an upfront payment of USD 200 million in a licensing deal for Biocon’s biosimilar insulin portfolio for diabetes treatment. As per the agreement,  Biocon  will also be eligible to get additional payments of up to USD 150 million. These payments will be linked to sales of Biocon’s insulin biosimilars. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Vikas Dandekar of pharmasianews.com gave his perspective on the deal. Excerpts from  Reporter's Diary on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show » Q: What do you make of this arrangement? First of all tell is what is the potential the market size as far as this insulin is concerned and what does this mean both for Biocon and Pfizer? A: A number of biosimilars are scheduled to be launched in the European market. A number of trials are going on, on insulin and this is a big potenti...

Global drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis AG and U.S.-based Johnson & Johnson have submitted concrete bids to acquire majority stake in the Indian unlisted firm Paras Pharmaceuticals, the Business Standard reported on Tuesday. The initial bids were much lower at around $600-$700 million, from the earlier expected valuation of close to $1 billion, the newspaper reported citing unidentified sources. "While more serious players such as Japan's Taisho Pharmaceutical are expected to join the race, domestic FMCG majors like Emami and Dabur are unlikely to place a bid for the company," the paper quoted a source as saying. Do you want to know more?

Pfizer Inc. and King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Pfizer will acquire King, a diversified specialty pharmaceutical discovery and clinical development company, for   $3.6 billion   in cash, or   $14.25   per share, which represents a premium of approximately 40% to King's closing price as of   October 11, 2010 , and 46% percent to the one-month average closing price as of the same date. The transaction was approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to be accretive to Pfizer's adjusted diluted earnings per share(1) by approximately   $0.02   annually in 2011 and 2012, and approximately $0.03 - $0.04   annually from 2013 through 2015. The transaction will further expand Pfizer's business profile, providing immediate, incremental diversified revenues generated by King's portfolio, including a prescription pharmaceutical business focu...

Opportunity: Professional (P2), CEM Research Informatics @ Pfizer--San Francisco, CA (US) BACKGROUND: Pfizer Inc : Working together for a healthier world Founded in 1849,   Pfizer   is the world's premier   biopharmaceutical company   taking new approaches to better health. We discover, develop, manufacture and deliver quality, safe and effective   prescription medicines   to treat and help prevent disease for both people and animals. We also partner with healthcare providers, governments and local communities around the world to expand access to our medicines and to provide better   quality health care   and health system support. At Pfizer, colleagues in more than 90 countries work every day to help people stay happier and healthier longer and to reduce the human and economic burden of disease worldwide. RESPONSIBILITIES: This role is responsible for supporting computational research operations at Rinat, interfacing with customers and BT...

Pfizer Neuroscience Postdoctoral Fellowship Program www.pfizerneuroscience.com Based in scenic Groton, Connecticut, the Pfizer Neuroscience Fellowship Program provides an unparalled opportunity for young scientists interested in understanding brain disorders and translating knowledge into innovative medicines. We seek motivated and enthusiastic individuals with a demonstrated track record in basic or translational neuroscience interested in pursuing an academic-style postdoc in an industry setting. Successful candidates will come from a range of backgrounds including molecular/cellular biology, protein biochemistry, in vitro and in vivo electrophysiology, imaging, systems neuroscience, animal models, and behavioral/cognitive neuroscience. At Pfizer, there are extensive programs in molecular/cellular neuroscience, synapse biology, and pharmacology. Moreover, there is a vibrant in vivo electrophysiology program for cognition, extensive behavioral models, imaging platf...

The story of Sanofi-Aventis '  hostile bid for Genzyme Corp  continues,  Chief Executive Henri Termeer said he is willing to sell the company he built up over 25 years, but not for $69 a share.  In an interview with Reuters , Termeer said it was unlikely that French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis SA would go hostile with its $18.5 billion bid and that the two sides had a good chance of coming to terms, though negotiations could last months. On Monday, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech company rejected Sanofi's bid of $69 a share. Sanofi has hinted it may take its offer directly to Genzyme shareholders if the company refuses to enter discussions based on its current offer.  Genzyme, in turn, is working its way through a manufacturing crisis that has lead to shortages of two of its biggest-selling products. Genzyme shares closed at $70.11 on Tuesday. Investors and industry analysts polled by Reuters have said a deal could be clinched at close to $78 per share....

Pfizer UK-Kent-Sandwich Computational Biologist Computational Sciences are integral to Pfizer’s strategy to accelerate the discovery of important new medicines. This is your opportunity to join a dynamic, innovative team, focusing on the development and use of novel computational methods and algorithms to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of drug discovery. We are looking for a Computational Biologist with skills in working with genomics data, developing novel algorithms and generating new biological hypotheses to join our Computational Sciences Center of Emphasis in Sandwich, UK. Specific areas of interest include: • Identification of new datasets and data mining techniques relevant to drug discovery • Developing and testing novel methods and algorithms, working with academic collaborators where opportunities arise • Building and testing prototype systems (both interfaces and algorithm libraries) • Working with scientists to apply tools to every day problems • Awarded or...

Biotech companies return to profitability Biotechnology companies worldwide turned a profit last year for the first time since at least 1985 due to reduced spending on research and increased revenue. Profit in the industry was $3.7 billion, compared with a loss of $1.8 billion in 2008, according to a report Wednesday on biotechnology in the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia by London-based Ernst & Young Global. The company has compiled its report annually for 24 years. Research and development spending in the U.S. fell 13 percent last year, with about two-thirds of companies cutting those expenses as capital for some grew scarcer, said Glen Giovannetti, leader of Ernst & Young's global biotech unit. Sixty percent of European firms reduced research costs. At the same time, overall sales increased in the industry, driven primarily by a small number of large companies with well-performing existing products, he said. "What we don't know is ...

Pfizer has entered into a series of agreements with Aurobindo Pharma, a pharmaceutical company based in India, to commercialize medicines that are no longer patent protected, and have lost market exclusivity in the US and Europe. Under the terms, Pfizer has acquired rights to 39 generic solid oral dose products in the US and 20 in Europe, plus an additional 11 in France. These medicines cover a range of therapeutic areas including cardiovascular disease and Central Nervous System disorders, and will be commercialized in the US through Pfizer's Greenstone subsidiary. The company has also acquired rights to 12 sterile injectable products in the US and Europe. These medicines are antibiotics including penicillins and cephalosporins. The global non-exclusive market represents about $270 billion with solid oral dose products representing the largest drug category. This category is anticipated to continue its rapid increase in market share and has an estimated growth potential of over $5...

Indian generics firm Piramal Healthcare says it " has no intention to dilute current ownership levels, " but has not commented on rumours that it is in talks with French firm Sanofi Aventis. Speculation emerged last week in an article where it was claimed that Sanofi was willing to pay a premium for a “ significant stake ” in Piramal and had already completed a due diligence review of the deal. In response, the Indian firm’s share price jumped some 17 per cent when the story broke.When contacted Piramal would not elaborate on the statement but, while most observers view the comments as scotching last week’s rumours, the lack of an outright denial of the Sanofi deal and careful choice of words still leave the possibility of an outright sale. While Sanofi would not comment, the $2bn (€1.6bn) price tag that emerged on earlier speculation that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was interested in Piramal, would fit with recent statements by CEO Christopher Viebacher tha...

Pfizer’s primary care business unit has dropped two Phase III candidates, further reducing the drug giant’s product pipeline and raising more questions about its R&D decisions. The firm said that that development of the compounds in question, esreboxetine for fibromyalgia and PD332334 for generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), had been abandoned after a review of existing clinical data. Company spokeswoman Kristen Neese told in-PharmaTechnologist that the latest decision reflects both current market dynamics and the expectation that the dropped candidates would not have offered significant medical benefits over available products. Neese went on to say that drugs currently in development for other indications would provide a better return for Pfizer’s clinical investment and added that the firm is “ still on track to have between 24 and 29 candidates in Phase III development by the end of 200...

Pfizer will eliminate 5 to 8 percent of its global research staff this year, totaling about 800 people, according to a spokesperson for the company. Pfizer began one-on-one conversations today with colleagues getting the boot, with the majority of lay-offs happening in the next several months, company spokesperson Christopher Loder told The Scientist . Be part of XTractor community. XTractor the first of its kind - Literature alert service , provides manually curated & annotated sentences for the Keywords of your choice XTractor maps, extracted entities (genes, processes, drugs, diseases etc) to multiple ontologies Enables customized report generation. With XTractor the sentences are categorized into biologically significant relationships The categorized sentences could then be tagged and shared across multiple users Provides users with the ability to create his own database for a set of Key terms Users could change the Keywords of preference from time to time, with chang...

180 jobs are to go in Cork after pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced it had failed to find a buyer for one of its five manufacturing facilities in Ireland. For the past 18 months, the company had been actively trying to sell the facility at Little Island as a going concern and retain employment there. However the sale fell through last month and the company says the facility will now closed by the end of 2009. Do you want to know more? Be a part of the XTractor community. XTractor is the first of its kind - Literature alert service , that provides manually curated and annotated sentences for the Keywords of user preference. XTractor maps the extracted entities (genes, processes, drugs, diseases etc) to multiple ontologies and enables customized report generation. With XTractor the sentences are categorized into biological significant relationships and it also provides the user with the ability to create his own database for a set of Key terms. Also the user could change the Ke...