French pharmaceutical Sanofi-Aventis on Monday struck a deal to buy Chattem Inc. for $1.9 billion in a bid to expand its presence in over-the-counter and consumer brands.
Sanofi (SNY 38.80, -0.31, -0.79%) (FR:SAN 54.20, -0.50, -0.91%) said it will pay $93.50 in cash for each share of Chattem (CHTT 69.98, +1.29, +1.88%) -- a 34% premium to Friday's closing price and a 44% premium to the shares' six-month average price.
Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Chattem's brands include Gold Bond, Icy Hot, ACT, Cortizone-10, Selsun Blue and Unisom.
For Sanofi, this deal will mark the first time it's been directly in the U.S. over-the-counter market. Sanofi also will seek to convert Allegra, its popular antihistamine treatment, from a prescription drug to an OTC product.
Once the drug becomes OTC, Chattem will distribute it.
CHTT 69.98, +1.29, +1.88%and CEO Zan Guerry and other senior managers have agreed to lead Sanofi's U.S. consumer health division once the deal is completed, Sanofi said.
Earlier Monday, Sanofi gave an update on its pipeline, as it's stopping development of drugs for insomnia and atrial fibrillation but having received fast-track designation from the Food and Drug Administration for a potential treatment for prostate cancer.
Analysts at Jefferies & Co. said the updates result in the loss of 1% of estimated 2015 revenue.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Sanofi Aventis merger
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Mergers got ahead of the real folks gone under - ho ho ho
U.S. securities regulators are investigating at least nine mergers, including Pfizer Inc's takeover of Wyeth and Merck & Co Inc's acquisition of Schering-Plough Corp, for possible insider-trading violations, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is probing whether deal advisers and traders illegally shared confidential information, the paper said, noting that the agency had sent out about three dozen subpoenas to hedge funds and brokerages.
It was looking at other pharmaceutical deals including Abbott Laboratories Inc's acquisition of Advanced Medical Optics and Eli Lilly & Co's buyout of ImClone Systems, the paper reported.
The Journal also said the SEC is asking questions about trading around retailer Best Buy Co Inc's 2008 acquisition of Napster Inc, investment firm Triarc Cos' acquisition of Wendy's International Inc and Ansys Inc's takeover of Ansoft Corp.
It was not clear whether the subpoenas were related to the insider-trading case unveiled in October involving New York hedge fund Galleon Group, the paper said.
The Journal said some of the recent subpoenas focus on specifics of investment bankers' involvement in deals, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc bankers' roles in roughly a dozen health-care transactions since 2006.
Goldman was an adviser to Schering-Plough and Pfizer, according to filings cited by the Journal.
"Goldman Sachs has robust policies and procedures in place to detect suspicious trading activity. If we detect suspicious activity of any kind, as required by law, we report it to the appropriate authorities," a company spokesman told the paper.
The Journal said representatives for Eli Lilly, Napster and Wendy's/Arby's Group declined to comment and that a spokesman for JER Partners said the firm cooperated with an SEC inquiry involving the Genesis HealthCare deal in 2007, but JER Partners has not heard from the SEC this year. He told the paper Genesis executives were contacted by the SEC this year, but it was not clear whether that inquiry was connected to the recent subpoenas.
(NO EDGAR REPORTS, JUST THE VERB FROM REU
Monday, September 28, 2009
Pneumococcal Vac
September 28 2009 03:00
GlaxoSmithKline has sealed an innovative €1.5bn (£1.38bn) contract with Brazil guaranteeing sales of its pneumococcal vaccine, designed to prevent pneumonia and meningitis, over the entire life of the product.
The deal marks a watershed in negotiation of a long-term contract in a way that provides GSK with an agreed price and volume, starting at €11.50 a dose and falling to €5 in future years.
Most drugs and vaccines are sold over far shorter periods and subject to uncertainties over arbitrary price reductions, as well as the threat of competition from rival low-cost generic alternatives.
The deal comes as GSK continues to expand in emerging markets and is diversifying away from drugs into vaccines and other products.
The company agreed to supply enough doses of Synflorix to vaccinate the 13m children requiring coverage each year for at least eight years, underpinned by a technology transfer agreement that will eventually allow Brazil to manufacture the vaccine itself.
Brazil's health minister and Andrew Witty, GSK's chief executive, unveiled the deal in London on Friday to strengthen Brazil's pharmaceutical research and development capacity, including a €17m joint project to develop a Dengue vaccine. Depending on the extent of technology transfer and Brazil's ability to manufacture the vaccine, which Mr Witty described as "probably the most technically complex vaccine in the world", GSK may still earn some income even after the contract ends.Some countries, including Brazil, have threatened or introduced compulsory licenses to overturn drug company patents and permit competition or force price reductions.
The price represents a significant discount tothat of about €35-€40 a dose at which the vaccine is sold in Europe, but the high volumes and long timescale provide unusual certainty to the company. The action also sets a baseline for sales in other middle-income countries, and for the Advance Market Commitment, a bulk purchase agreement with donor governments to help buy the vaccine for low- income countries.Mr Witty said: "This wasn't the first and I don't believe it will be the last such contract. It shows GSK and Brazil are really coming together with the same mindset."
Paulo Gadelha, president of the Fiocruz institute, which will produce the vaccine, stressed that the technology received could also be used to help it make other vaccines in future. He said his institute was already pledging to provide technology transfer to make low-cost drugs and vaccines for African countries, in what could provide a challenge for large pharmaceutical companies. Mr Witty said "there has to be enough economic flow to encourage GSK to continue" developing vaccines for predominantly low- income countries. Prevnar from Wyeth will be a big competitor, Pfizer getting Prevnar approval in EMEA from European Authorities last Friday from FT.com Braxil
Since Chartnuts, no surprise, since the loon ignores competing products & other "subtractive factors", had never heard of Synflorix before I told the loser about it, here is a summary of some differences, relying to some extent on Wiki:
Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) is a vaccine used to protect infants & young children against disease caused by the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus). There are currently two PCV vaccines available on the global market: Prevnar (sometimes called Prevenar) & Synflorix.
Prevnar, trade name of manufacturer WYE, is a heptavalent vaccine, meaning that it contains the cell membrane sugars of seven serotypes of pneumococcus, conjugated with Diphtheria proteins. In the US, vaccination with Prevnar is recommended for all children younger than two years, & for unvaccinated children between 24 & 59 months old who are at high risk for pneumococcal infections.
The vaccine was primarily developed for US & European epidemiological situation, & therefore it has only a limited coverage of serotypes causing serious pneumococcal infections in most developing countries.
Prevnar is produced from the seven most prevalent strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria in the US. The bacterial capsule sugars, a characteristic of these pathogens, are linked to CRM197, a nontoxic recombinant variant of diphtheria toxin (Corynebacterium diphtheriae).
The vaccine's polysaccharide sugars are grown separately in soy peptone broths. Through reductive amination, the sugars are directly conjugated to the protein carrier CRM197 to form the glycoconjugate. CRM197 is grown in Corynebacterium diphtheriae strain C7 in a medium of casamino acids and yeast extracts.
The current 7-valent formulation contains serotypes 4, 6B, 9V, 14, 18C, 19F & 23F, & results in a 98% probability of protection against these strains, which caused 80% of the pneumococcal disease in infants in the US.
In 2009, WYE will introduce Prevnar 13, which contains six additional strains (1, 3, 5, 6A, 19A & 7F), protecting against the majority of remaining pneumococcal infections.
Synflorix, manufactured by GSK, received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency for use in the European Union in January 2009. Synflorix is a ten valent vaccine meaning that it contains ten serotypes of pneumococcus (1, 4, 5, 6B, 7F, 9V, 14, 18C, 19F & 23F) which are conjugated to a carrier protein. GSK received European Commission authorization for Synflorix in March 2009.
Synflorix contains the same seven pneumococcal serotypes in Prevnar. In addition, Synflorix protects against serotypes 1, 5 & 7F. Eight of the ten serotypes are linked to a protein carrier derived from non typeable Haemophilus influenzae.
Here then is a summary:
Prevnar 13: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6A, 6B, 7F 9V, 14, 18C, 19A, 19F & 23F.
Synflorix: 1, 4, 5, 6B, 7F, 9V, 14, 18C, 19F & 23F.
I don't know whether Synflorix' carrier offers advantages over Prevnar's, or was selected to avoid patent issues. Nor do I know if the added serotypes are more prevalent in the developing world.
Many have questioned whether Prevnar, optimized against ear infections, is worth the price. WYE may agree, since they widened its serotype spectrum.
In the developing world, whence future growth must come, price will certainly be an issue.