Financial

(From Fierce Pharma) - Totally worth checking out the source.

1. Miles White - Abbott - $33.4M
2. Fred Hassan - Schering-Plough - $30.1M
3. Bill Weldon - Johnson & Johnson - $25.1M
4. Bob Essner - Wyeth - $24.1M
5. Robert Parkinson - Baxter - $17.6M
6. Daniel Vasella - Novartis - $15.5M
7. Richard Clark - Merck - $14.5M
8. Frank Baldino - Cephalon - $13.5M
9. Sidney Taurel - Eli Lilly - $13M
10. Jeff Kindler - Pfizer - $12.6M
11. Jim Cornelius - Bristol-Myers Squibb - $11.3
12. Franz Humer - Roche - $11.1M
13. Robert Coury - Mylan - $8.5M
14. Jean-Pierre Garnier - GlaxoSmithKline - $6M
15. Werner Wenning - Bayer - $4.77M

Most people are into lists and I am no exception. So, without further ado, here is a list of the top  20 drugs by 2007 sales.

Also, because I’m a nice guy, I’ve published the top 82 compounds with loads of other information that wouldn’t fit in the post (e.g.; 2005 and 2006 sales, CAGR growth rates, 2006 rank, generic name and companies booking sales) here on a larger, non-pharmababble styled page.

I can’t promise all the numbers are flawlessly correct, so you might want to double check them before using them in something of uber-importance. Enjoy.

I was always under the impression that the best time to release news you didn’t want anyone to fuss about was the Friday before a long weekend.

Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Secures up to $65 Million in Financing
Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that it has entered into a $15 million secured loan agreement with Oxford Finance Corporation and Silicon Valley Bank at 9.57% per annum and a Committed Equity Financing Facility (CEFF) with Kingsbridge Capital Limited in which Kingsbridge has committed to provide up to $50 million of capital through the purchase of newly-issued shares of Somaxon’s common stock. Clearly in preparation for the FDA decision on SILENOR.

NxStage Announces $43 Million Private Placement of Equity Securities
NxStage Medical announced a $43 million private placement of its common stock and warrants. The private placement consists of 9.6 million shares of NxStage common stock at a price of $4.50 per share and warrants to purchase 1.9 million shares of common stock at an exercise price of $5.50 per share, which price may be adjusted to $3.00 or $6.50 depending upon whether the Company achieves certain targets relating to the number of End Stage Renal Disease patients prescribed to receive therapy with the NxStage System One as of December 31, 2008.

The private placement will be closed in two tranches. The Company has agreed to sell the first tranche of $25 million to OrbiMed Advisors LLC (plus a seat on the board of directors) and the second $18 million to existing institutional investors. This second tranche is subject to stockholder approval, and is expected to close during the third quarter, after they hold a special meeting of its stockholders.

Allos Therapeutics Announces Pricing of Public Offering of 10,800,000 Shares of Common Stock
Allos announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 10,800,000 shares of newly issued common stock at a public offering price of $5.64 per share. They expect to receive net proceeds from the offering of approximately $56.6 million, after deducting underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses. The company plans to use the net proceeds from the financing for, and I’m boiling this down a bit, running their business.

(From: Fierce Biotech) It’s worth checking out for the notes.

Kevin Sharer - Amgen
Total Compensation: $19.9 million

Arthur Levinson - Genentech
Total Compensation: $18.8 million

Henri A. Termeer - Genzyme
Total Compensation: $14.6 million

John C. Martin - Gilead
Total Compensation: $10.8 million

James Mullen - Biogen Idec\
Total Compensation: $8.9 million

Valuation in Life Sciences: A Practical Guide [Colorado Life Science Deal Flow]

Ran across the above post today and purchased the book from Amazon immediately. I am a disciple of rNPV valuation techniques and can’t wait to dig in to real option valuation (ROV). The only downside is the 3-5 week wait for the book.

(Via The Business of Biotech.)

A few hours after I had written this post about the Pfizer/Esperion spin-off signaling a changing of the times in big pharma, I see I this story about Bristol-Myers Squibb divesting ConvaTec to some private equity groups (Nordic Capital VII and Avista Capital Partners) for $4.1 billion dollars. This press release jogged my memory and I remembered reading about BMS divesting its medical imaging division for 500 something million, also to Avista sometime in late December. While neither deal is applicable to my “entering a new R&D phase” projection I put forth in the aforementioned post, the move does still signify the big players’ willingness to concentrate on what they do best.

Now, I don’t follow non-biopharma industries real closely so you can correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t this seem to be the anti-GE strategy (i.e.; divesting non-synergistic business units)?  I’m not sure what this means.  Maybe pharma is choosing potential growth rate over mitigating risk by diversification for a potential larger return? Or, contrary to my thesis, big pharma may just be trading a failed (or stagnant) asset for one with a brighter future by buying the next hot commodity. With licensing deals for in-demand, phase 2 compounds increasingly in the 100-200m upfront, $1b biodollar every dime helps (even if you have 11 figures of cash in the bank.

Nuon Therapeutics Inc. Completes $27 Million Series B Financing
The Series B funding will enable Nuon Therapeutics to advance its orally active lead compound, tranilast, through Phase II clinical trials and support the discovery and development of additional compounds. In 2007, Nuon Therapeutics raised $5 million in its Series A round.

Constellation Pharmaceuticals Closes $32 Million in Series A Funding
Constellation Pharmaceuticals announced that it has closed a $32 million Series A financing. Proceeds from the financing will be used to establish the discovery platform and accelerate the development of a preclinical candidate pipeline of epigenetic-targeted drugs. Third Rock Ventures, The Column Group and Venrock co-led the round.

They say they are the first company:

“…focused on discovering and developing novel drugs targeting selective regulators of epigenetic function…” and are “developing a deep pipeline of preclinical drug candidates based on the unique insights of the founders and scientific advisory board…”

Cute, but really not true. I hate to pull out my malarkey badge and play bullcrap policeman today but I can’t let this one slide… there are plenty or companies targeting “epigenetics” whether they call it that or not. Basically, epigenetics as a therapy, is simply the silencing of hereditary genes; a pretty broad definition. Most often this is accomplished exploiting and removing chemical activation groups on histones (methyl, actetyl type modifications etc…). I’m not close to an expert in this area but a few companies (and probably many others) with HDACs come to mind: MethylGene, Sirtris, Merck and Curagen.

Neurologix Completes Additional $5 Million Private Placement
Neurologix, Inc. (OTCBB:NRGX), completed a private placement of an additional $5 million of Series D Convertible Preferred Stock at a price of $35 per share. Each share of Series D Stock is convertible into approximately 30.17 shares of common stock. The proceeds from the transaction, net of expenses, will be used to finance the further clinical development of the company’s gene transfer technology for Parkinson’s disease and other indications, and for corporate purposes.

“This additional financing is a direct reflection of the progress the company has made to date as well as Corriente’s confidence in our ability to deliver on our development milestones,” said John Mordock, Neurologix President and Chief Executive Officer. “Most recently, we received clearance from the FDA to initiate our Phase 2 clinical trial, and we expect to commence such trial in the second quarter of this year. These funds, along with the $15 million raised in November, provide the company with over $22 million to use towards completing that trial and taking the necessary steps to advance our Parkinson’s indication toward commercialization, including further development of our manufacturing process, regulatory preparation for an anticipated Phase 3 pivotal trial, and building additional supporting infrastructure.”

Good article, great interview. Kindler answers tough questions candidly with quality answers.
Check out the video and blog post here.