Bio Saga Blog - A Chronicle of Life Sciences & Informatics

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?

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....

Courtesy Bloomberg Sanofi-Aventis  may begin a hostile bid for Genzyme Corp. should the U.S. biotechnology company resist a takeover approach, analysts at Citigroup Inc. said. No other bidder is likely to emerge for Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Genzyme, and Sanofi will probably succeed in acquiring the company for $74 to $77 a share, Citigroup analysts  Mark Dainty  and  Yaron Werber  wrote in a report to clients today. Genzyme is worth $70 a share based on estimated cash flow, and Sanofi would benefit from as much as $5.50 a share of synergies in an acquisition, they said. Investors in Genzyme say Paris-based Sanofi may have to pay at least $80 a share, or $21.3 billion, to acquire the maker of drugs that fight genetic diseases. Sanofi Chief Executive Officer  Chris Viehbacher  has support from his board to offer as much as $70 a share, or about $18.7 billion, and is preparing a formal offer letter, three people familiar with the situation said ...

Industry response to the H1N1 pandemic suggests that cell culture vaccine production is about to come of age with two firms that use the technique, Novartis and Baxter, claiming it will cut development and manufacturing timelines by months. Margaret Chan officially declared the pandemic explaining that H1N1 infections worldwide can no longer be traced and that “ further spread is considered inevitable .” She asked drugmakers to begin preparing for large-scale H1N1 vaccine production when manufacture of seasonal stocks is completed, prompting a flurry of industry updates from vaccine producers. Baxter and Novartis aim for early availability The most eye-catching of these responses came from US drugmaker Baxter which announced it has completed testing of its Celvapan H1N1 vaccine and is “ now in full-scale production ,” and is working to deliver it as early as next month. Traditionally, seasonal influenza vaccines are mass produced using the albumin found in fertilised hens eggs a...

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...