Another CB-1 Antagonist Bites the Dust: Pfizer Cancels CP-945,598

Not a shocking decision given the issues with other doomed CB1 antagonist programs but why didn’t this happen a year ago?
Pfizer Discontinues Development Program for Its Phase 3 Obesity Compound (CP-945,598)
-(Via Business Wire Health News.)

No Rumors For You. Come Back. One Year

Cutting costs or adding non-core business assets?
Either, the rumor mongers who keep this Pfizer/Bayer rumor alive lack common sense or Pfizer does.
Bayer Shares Rise On Pfizer Bid Rumors (Yahoo/Reuters)
Hat tip to Ed at Pharmalot

One Man’s Trash: Novartis Buys Nektar’s Pulmonary Division for $115M

After one of the most spectacular failures in pharmaceutical marketing history (Pfizer/Nektar’s Exubera; inhaled insulin), Novartis has signed a definitive agreement to acquire (i.e.; steal) Nektar’s pulmonary business unit for USD 115 million in cash to be financed from the Group’s financial resources.
Novartis will acquire research, development and manufacturing assets of Nektar’s pulmonary business unit, [...]

Pfizer and UCB Announce Cyclofluidics: A Joint Venture

Cyclofluidic, the new private joint venture between Pfizer and UCB, will develop technologies aimed at using microfluidics to radically “shorten drug development timelines.”
The lab in which I completed my thesis is a leader in lab-on-a-chip microfluidics and I’m not sure how using smaller amounts of chemicals and exploiting laminar flow fluid mechanics changes development timelines [...]

Swami Predicts ImClone’s Future

Me: Swami, thanks for taking my call.  With the credit markets in turmoil and this election business seeping into daily conversation, you must be mighty busy.  Anyway, might you be able to find the time to predict the outcome of the ImClone / BMS / Lilly acquisition? Mind you, I have no financial position in [...]

ImClone To Reveal Mystery Suitor?

According the WSJ, ImClone may reveal the buyer reportedly offering $70/share (~$6.1B) and there is some speculation that the suitor is either Pfizer or Eli Lilly (though they don’t seem to have quite enough cash in the bank).
Investing, ultimately, is about alternatives.  Why invest in the stock market if you can get 10% in a [...]

ImClone Throws Down and Announces Additional Suitor

It was only a matter of time before the BMS/ImClone chatter picked up again. Today, ImClone has released a statement, again officially crapping on BMS’s unsolicited, $60/share offer and also chumming the waters with news of a different possible suitor.
“Mr. Icahn also announced he has had several conversations with the Chief Executive Officer of [...]

Pfizer Drops $225M Up-Front for Dimebon

After Medivation released its excellent phase IIb results at the Alzheimer’s conference in July, we all knew it was just a matter of time before they partnered the 30+ year old, Russian marketed anti-histamine for the treatment of Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease.
That time has come.
Terms:
- $225M up-front
- $500M in milestones
- 60/40 Pfizer/Medivation development cost [...]

Pfizer Waging Battle Over Ranbaxy??

 
Image via Wikipedia

I was on a plane all day, headed to the BIO-LES seminar and didn’t get a chance to read the wire, so there is really no need to throw in my two cents at this point but the WSJ reported that Pfizer may be interested in topping the Daichii bid for Ranbaxy.  
Though [...]

Big Pharma Tries to Shake Things Up

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

GSK to shake-up research strategies (Financial Times)
UCSF, Pfizer sign collaborative research deal (San Fransisco Chronicle )
Both Via Pharmalot
It’s no secret that big pharma players have some work to do on their late-state pipeline and that they are collectively grasping at straws trying to bring in revenue.
Clearly, deciding to reorganize your [...]

Biopharm Closing Bell: 5/16/08

Top Movers

Gainers (% price change)
Last Trade
Change
Mkt Cap

Pharmacopeia, Inc.
PCOP
4.04
+0.86 (27.05%)
119.80M

Electro-Optical Sciences,
MELA
7.95
+0.93 (13.25%)
122.44M

Infinity Pharmaceuticals
INFI
8.02
+0.62 (8.38%)
158.37M

Cambrex Corporation
CBM
5.99
+0.42 (7.54%)
174.21M

Metropolitan Health
MDF
2.00
+0.14 (7.53%)
103.77M

Losers (% price change)
 

Tercica, Inc.
TRCA
3.82
-0.36 (-8.61%)
197.05M

Trubion Pharmaceuticals,
TRBN
6.61
-0.55 (-7.68%)
118.00M

Sucampo Pharmaceuticals,
SCMP
10.33
-0.83 (-7.44%)
431.11M

3SBio Inc. (ADR)
SSRX
10.06
-0.80 (-7.33%)
218.48M

Savient Pharmaceuticals,
SVNT
22.69
-1.46 (-6.05%)
1.23B

Most Actives (dollar volume)
 

Pfizer Inc.
PFE
20.03
-0.05 (-0.25%)
135.51B

Johnson & Johnson
JNJ
66.68
+0.00 (0.00%)
187.92B

Genentech, Inc.
DNA
70.19
+1.36 (1.98%)
73.76B

Merck & Co., Inc.
MRK
40.00
+0.00 (0.00%)
85.86B

Intuitive Surgical, Inc.
ISRG
299.75
+6.77 (2.31%)
11.60B

Rumor Mill: Pfizer Buying MediGene?

The German based, MediGene hit a 52 week high yesterday on rumors that they are in discussions with the drug giant Pfizer. MediGene is just the latest of half a dozen companies mentioned in the same sentence as Pfizer in the last few months (others include Biogen, Shire, King and NicOx).
In the past year, [...]

Bristol-Myers Squibb To Be Acquired By… [Insert Name Here]??

In a previous post, I speculated on reasons for shedding of non-core pharmaceutical assets by BMS. Don’t read it. I was grasping at straws and missed the real connection, I think BMS is divesting non-biopharm assets because it will soon be acquired. The company’s stock is down 11% from this January [...]

BMS Sheds ConvaTec for $4.1 billion

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 [...]

Does the Esperion Spin-Off Signal the Start of New R&D Era?

What a difference time makes.  Pfizer acquired Esperion roughly 4 years ago at a 53% premium and a price tag of $1.3 billion dollars.  Yesterday, Esperion was spun off from Pfizer and raised ~$23m from VCs to continue operation, with no other financial terms disclosed.  Esperion had been operating as a separate research division inside [...]