Contact:
sales@biotechnologyforums.com to feature here

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Concerns in UK over proposed AstraZeneca takeover by Pfizer
#1
The drugs company Pfizer has made a $106 billion-plus takeover bid for AstraZeneca. However, the move has prompted a statement from AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot which lays out his projections of how his company’s experimental drugs are well-placed to yield tens of billions of dollars for investors in the future. Meanwhile, the proposed takeover has met with concern in the UK, where four scientific bodies say recent mergers and acquisitions have resulted in lab closures. Pfizer have, for example, closed laboratories in US companies which it acquired and also sold its UK-based research facilities in Kent in 2011. This resulted in the loss of 1500 jobs.

Pascal Soriot dispensed with the usual caution applied by biotech and pharma companies in making projections by offering an assessment that AstraZeneca can deliver a "risk-adjusted" payoff of $23 billion a year or a non-risks-adjusted payoff of $63 billion. He points chiefly to the company’s late-stage and mid-stage testing for its immuno-oncology drugs. Other experimental drugs under development in AstraZeneca include AZD3293, a high-risk BACE program for Alzheimer's, as well as diabetes and respiratory disease drugs. Pascal Soriot states: "AstraZeneca is completing its transformation, and now has the right size, focus and team to deliver on one of the most exciting pipelines in the pharmaceutical industry….We have fostered a culture of innovation where science is at the heart of what we do and today we set out the greatly improved quality of our mid and late stage pipeline and its significant commercial potential. We are continuing to create significant value for shareholders from our independent strategy."

Meanwhile in the UK, the proposed takeover is causing real concern that Pfizer may seriously cut back AstraZeneca's research facilities. AstraZeneca is currently the UK's second biggest research and development industrial spender; last year it invested £2.8bn. It has eight sites and employs about 6,700 people. According to BBC News, Adrian Bailey, who is a Labour MP and chair of the Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee, is considering an inquiry into the issue. Many leading scientific bodies have expressed serious concerns to the government. Dr Melanie Lee, who is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, is concerned that the move could be a "nail in the coffin" of the UK drug industry. However, not all commentators think that the move would necessarily be detrimental. For example, Professor Sir Richard Sykes, who is chairman of the Royal Institution, and a former head of GSK, doubts that it would be of benefit to Pfizer to close AstraZeneca’s UK research facilities.

Sources
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27208899 [Accessed 7 May 2014]

Press release: AstraZeneca; available at http://www.fiercebiotech.com/press-relea...areholders
Like Post Reply
  

Possibly Related Threads…
Thread
Author
  /  
Last Post



Users browsing this thread:
1 Guest(s)

Concerns in UK over proposed AstraZeneca takeover by Pfizer00