PGH, Wyeth team up v. tuberculosis
In commemoration of World TB Day on March 23, the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) and Wyeth Philippines Inc. (WPI) teamed up for tuberculosis eradication in the workplace by providing free treatment to UP-PGH employees diagnosed with tuberculosis. Under the agreement, WPI, will provide free medicines for the whole six-month treatment course.
The agreement was signed by Dr. Carmelo Alfiler, UP-PGH director, and Andrew Santos Jr., WPI vice president for nutritionals and pharmaceuticals. Also present during the signing were WPI's Dr. Nerissa Calimon, medical director; Noel Fortin, sales and marketing director; Janet Yap, business manager for antiinfectives; and UP-PGH's Drs. Armand Crisostomo, centennial-committee chair; Joel Santiaguel, chair of the occupational-health and safety committee; and Jubert Benedicto, training officer of the pulmonary-msedicine section.
The team-up is part of a program to rid the workplace of tuberculosis. "One of the commitments of this administration is occupational safety, and we are not just paying lip service to this effort," said Alfiler, adding that the team-up is an example of private-public sector partnership in the national campaign against TB.
Santos echoed Alfiler's view, saying, "In Wyeth, as in PGH, we really want to minimize if not eradicate tuberculosis and we are working hard toward that goal."
Tuberculosis, remains a major cause of mortality worldwide, claiming two to three million lives per year. Despite efforts by the World Health Organization (WHO) to control the disease, some eight million new cases are diagnosed each year. The Philippines ranks ninth among 22 high-burden countries identified by the WHO. Together, these countries account for eight out of every 10 cases of tuberculosis.
The economic burden of TB is also high. A study by a UP economics group estimates the income loss due to TB at PhP26.4 billion per year.
It takes at least six months to cure a TB patient. To ensure success and prevent failure, which could breed resistant cases, the WHO adopted the directly observed treatment short course (DOTS), in which treatment is carried out under strict supervision of a health worker, a caregiver, or a family member to make sure that the patients do not miss any dose. This increases the cure rate to 90 percent.
As education is an important aspect the campaign against TB, Wyeth also sponsored a lay forum for UP-PGH employees, patients, and their caregivers on March 26.
M Carisa Paraz, MD
Schering boosts Bayer profits
LEVERKUSEN, Germany
Bayer booked record profits in 2006, boosted by the strong performance of its newly acquired Schering unit, and hoped to maintain the momentum again this year. Bayer said its net profits rose by 5.4 percent to US$2.2 billion last year while operating profits (earnings before interest and tax), were up 14.2 percent at US$4.56 billion on a 17.2-percent rise in sales to US$37.9 billion.
"Fiscal 2006 was an extraordinarily eventful and very successful year for Bayer," said chair Werner Wenning. "The gratifying expansion of business led to an improvement in operational profitability ... in fact, we set a new earnings record."
The main event last year was the acquisition of contraceptive and fertility-drug specialist Schering for about US$22 billion, the biggest acquisition in Bayer's history. Schering boosted sales in Bayer's health-care division, which rose by 46.6 percent to US$15.4 billion.
Looking ahead to the current year, Wenning said: "All signs point to further growth in 2007 as well. Our sales and earnings performance in the first two months of this year gives us confidence."
Sales and underlying profits were projected to rise by more than 10 percent.
Earlier, Bayer announced plans to slash 6,100 jobs worldwide following its takeover of Schering. At Schering's Berlin headquarters alone, where the workforce totals 5,500, some 950 jobs would be axed.
"We said right from the start of the integration that job cuts would be necessary in order to achieve the synergy targets," said Wenning. "We want to create an internationally successful pharmaceutical company with competitive cost structures."
The company estimates the merger could save it up to US$920 million annually from 2009.
Wenning promised that the job cuts, which he described as "essential streamlining measures ... are to be fairly implemented in a socially acceptable process, balanced across the globe."
About 3,150 jobs are on the line in Europe, of which 1,500 would come in Germany alone. A further 1,000 jobs would be axed in the United States, 750 in the Asia-Pacific region and Japan, and 1,200 jobs in Latin America and Canada. Bayer and Schering employ around 60,000 people worldwide in their pharmaceuticals activities, of whom 13,000 are based in Germany.
The head of the newly created Bayer Schering Pharma, Arthur Higgins, said that with the estimated cost of the merger amounting to around US$1.3 billion between 2006 and 2008, job cuts were "unfortunate, but unavoidable."
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Nestlé swallows up Gerber
GENEVA
Swiss food giant Nestlé has agreed to buy the biggest baby-food maker in the United States for US$5.5 billion in a deal that extends its global empire. The all-cash deal to buy the Gerber business from Swiss pharmaceutical group Novartis would secure Nestlé the top spot in the US, the world's largest baby-food market where Gerber has a 79-percent market share.
"The acquisition of Gerber is the perfect complementary fit," said Nestlé chief executive Peter Brabeck. "It not only gives Nestle the leadership position in baby food, but it also constitutes a decisive step to establish Nestlé Nutrition as the undisputed global leader in the nutrition field," he added.
Nestlé is widely regarded as the world number one for baby foods, but Gerber's dominance in the US had stifled Nestlé's progress in the lucrative US market.
Brabeck predicted that the deal, which is due to be completed in the second half of 2007, would boost overall sales of its keynote nutrition division-covering health foods, medical nutrition, infant food, and performance foods-to US$10 billion.
The Vevey-based multinational had already acquired Novartis's medical-nutrition business for US$2.5 billion last December, but failed to take over Gerber, a successful brand it has been eyeing for years.
In 2006, Gerber achieved unaudited net sales of US$1.6 billion with an operating income of US$307 million. Nestlé estimated that those sales could reach US$1.95 billion in 2007.
Novartis said the sale of the US-based baby food brand completed its divestments under a strategy to focus on its core health-care and pharmaceuticals business. Daniel Vasella, Novartis chief executive, emphasized that the sale was also "the right move for Gerber, as it will become a priority business in a leading global nutrition company."
Analysts said Novartis had been content to manage Gerber while it was looking for a buyer, while Nestlé could reinvigorate business at the US company.
Nestlé has reportedly been keen on acquiring Gerber for more than 10 years. It made an offer for the group back in 1994, but was thwarted by Sandoz, which went on to merge with Ciba-Geigy to give birth to Novartis.
Gerber, based in Parsipanny, New Jersey, has a portfolio of around 300 food products for babies, toddlers, and infants as well as a line in baby-care and life insurance.
M Patrick Baert, AFP
Singapore, India in teleradiology deal
BANGALORE, India
Singapore's National Healthcare Group recently teamed up with an Indian firm to provide long-distance analysis of X-rays and more complicated medical scans in 30 minutes to hospitals across the world.
National Healthcare, which runs four hospitals, three specialty institutes, and nine clinics with a staff of 12,000 in Singapore, and Bangalore-based Teleradiology Solutions will be equal partners in a joint venture to be based in the city-state, the partners said after signing the agreement.
"It will increase the accessibility of health care for patients," Lim Suet Wun, chief executive officer of National Healthcare, said. "It brings good value to the profession and the people we serve."
Teleradiology Solutions has 120 specialists who read and analyze computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound images, nuclear-medicine studies, and digitized X-rays that are sent to its "virtual labs" electronically by hospitals in the United States, its main market.
From the minute an image comes in to the time it is analyzed and a report is sent back to a hospital emergency room in New York it takes just half an hour, said Dr. Sunita Maheshwari, who founded the company five years ago with her husband Arjun Kalyanpur.
That helps hospitals quickly administer life-saving treatment to critical patients, and save on costs in the face of a shortage of trained professionals.
"There's a crying need for teleradiology because health-care costs and manpower problems are spiraling across the world," said Kalyanpur, who set up the firm in a one-room office from where it has moved to a building with 6,500 square meters of space.
National Healthcare studied the credentials of similar companies before picking the Indian firm, officials said.
The joint venture, to be called Telerad (Singapore), will target clients in Europe, the United States, Asia, and the Middle East.
Teleradiology Solutions' business has been growing at an annual pace of 50 percent, and it believed it had made "India a brand in teleradiology," said Maheshwari. Having Singapore as the partner "opens up doors" to markets that were closed to a small company because the city-state's ministry of health and its Economic Development Board would back the venture, she added.
M Anil Penna, AFP
Altana posts record earnings
BAD HOMBURG, Germany
Altana achieved record profits last year, boosted by gains from the sale of its core pharmaceuticals division. Altana said its net profit amounted to US$5.1 billion in 2006 compared with US$574.3 million a year earlier. Operating profit, as measured by earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization, was up 50 percent at US$243.7 million on a 43-percent rise in sales to US$1.7 billion.
"The last business year of Altana in the constellation with two divisions was the most successful one in the group's 30-year history," chief executive Nikolaus Schweickart said.
Earnings last year were inflated by one-off gains from the sale of Altana's pharmaceuticals business to Danish drug maker Nycomed for US$5.9 billion.
For the current year, Altana said it was projecting sales of US$1.8 billion and operating profit of US$314 million.
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Roche acquires BioVeris, THP
BASEL, Switzerland
Roche and BioVeris Corporation have signed a definitive merger agreement under which Roche will acquire 100-percent ownership in BioVeris for US$21.50 per share in cash, or about US$600 million. Roche said the acquisition will allow Roche Diagnostics to expand its immunochemistry business from the human-diagnostics field into new market segments such as life-science research and development, patient self-testing, veterinary testing, drug discovery, drug development, and clinical trials.
By acquiring BioVeris, Roche will own the complete patent estate of the electrochemiluminescence (ECL) technology deployed in the Elecsys product line which gives Roche Diagnostics the opportunity to fully exploit the entire immunochemistry market.
Severin Schwan, chief executive of Roche Diagnostics, said: "ECL is a highly innovative technology. In comparison with other detection technologies ECL offers distinct advantages such as enhanced sensitivity, short incubation times, and broad measuring ranges. This acquisition ensures that Roche will be able to provide unrestricted access to all customers and therefore represents a significant growth opportunity for our immunochemistry business."
At US$5.7 billion, immunochemistry is the largest lab diagnostic segment and growing at more than double clinical chemistry. In 2006, Roche's immunochemistry business grew by 13 percent, significantly outpacing the market. Up till now Roche's strategy has been to focus on leveraging the value of the Elecsys immunochemistry technology in the human-diagnostics market. However, an increasing number of Roche's in vitro diagnostics customers are expanding their business into the area of clinical trials.
Roche has also acquired Therapeutic Human Polyclonals Inc. (THP) a privately owned biotechnology company based in California and Germany that focuses on innovative antibody research.
"We are delighted about this acquisition as it builds on our strength in therapeutic antibodies," said Jonathan Knowles, head of global research at Roche. "THP and its employees will add cutting-edge capabilities and represent an excellent strategic fit with our own R&D organization."
Roche paid US$56.5 million in cash to acquire 100-percent ownership of THP, which it plans to fully integrate into the Roche Pharma Center of Excellence for Protein Research in Penzberg, Germany.
An emerging biotechnology company, THP has developed a unique transgenic mammalian platform to create human antibodies. The technology will enable the generation of both monoclonal and polyclonal antibody therapeutics with enhanced efficacy.
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Glenmark seeks ezetimibe license
MUMBAI, India
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Limited said that Schering Corporation and MSP Singapore Company LLC filed a suit on March 22 before the United States District Court of New Jersey seeking to prevent Glenmark from proceeding with the commercialization of its generic version of ezetimibe. Ezetimibe is currently marketed by Schering as Zetia.
Glenmark filed an abbreviated new-drug application (ANDA) with the US Food and Drug Administration seeking regulatory approval to market a generic version of ezetimibe on October 25, 2006, the first date on which an ANDA for ezetimibe could be filed. Glenmark's application included a paragraph-IV certification with respect to patents listed by Schering in the FDA "Orange Book." Glenmark is the first, and believes it is the only, applicant to have filed an ANDA for ezetimibe with a paragraph-IV certification. In the event that Glenmark successfully challenges Schering's patent, Glenmark would be entitled to a 180-day exclusivity period.
Zetia had sales of approximately $1.5 billion in the US, based on IMS sales data for the fiscal year ending January 2007.
Glenmark is a leader in India in the discovery of new molecules and is focused on the areas of inflammation and metabolic disorders. The company has business interests in over 80 countries across the world.
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Pfizer to take over BioRexis
NEW YORK
Pfizer Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire BioRexis Pharmaceutical Corporation, a privately held biopharmaceutical company with a number of diabetes-treatment candidates and a novel technology platform for developing new protein drugs. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
"Through this acquisition, we are investing in a company with an exciting new technology and potential new product candidates in diabetes," said Dr. Edmund Harrigan, senior vice president for worldwide licensing and new-business development at Pfizer. "This is an example of how we are pursuing compelling science outside our walls in order to deliver new health-care solutions to customers and patients."
David Shedlarz, Pfizer vice chair, said the acquisition is a further step in Pfizer's strategy to accelerate business development and licensing activity while ensuring appropriate operational and financial discipline. "Our strategy is focused on complementing Pfizer's current portfolio of medicines and acquiring technologies that can be applied to strengthen and add value to our portfolio."
BioRexis is developing long-acting GLP-1 receptor agonists for the potential treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes. Early studies with these compounds support their potential to advance new treatment options for this disease. It has developed proprietary protein-engineering technologies based on human transferrin to provide novel therapeutic agents with substantially longer durations of action than synthetic peptides. In addition to reducing dosing frequency, these technologies have the potential to substantially improve tolerability as compared with other evolving protein therapeutic technologies.
M BusinessWire
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