Today's Top Stories | By Tracy Staton |  Comment |  Forward | < a href="http://links.mkt1985.com/ctt?kn=117&ms=MzUzODcxNwS2&r=MjM2NzI3MjAzMjcS1&b=0&j=MTExNTgxMDUwS0&mt=1&rt=0" name="api_addthis_com_oexchange_GB7wwdA5P9Sd7HQWWPr40A" > Twitter |  Facebook |  LinkedIn | Sanofi ($SNY) has agreed to offload its Dermik skincare business to Valeant Pharmaceuticals ($VRX) in a $425 million deal that gives the Canadian drugmaker brands such as the acne treatment BenzaClin and wrinkle-filler Sculptra. It also allows Sanofi to focus more tightly on what CEO Christopher Viehbacher (photo) calls its "growth platforms." The cash deal brings to fruition Sanofi's previously announced intent to divest the dermatology business with operations concentrated mostly in North America. "This divestiture allows us to rationalize our portfolio and improve focus on our core businesses," Viehbacher said in a statement. Despite the "focus-on-our-core" language in that announcement, the Dermik sale isn't a divestment á la Bristol-Myers Squibb, which has pared away its non-pharma units to focus solely on innovative meds, or even a Pfizer-esque spinoff designed to feed investors' desires while shedding a big chunk of peripheral business. Sanofi, along with rivals such as GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis, remains in the diversification-is-good camp, with operations in animal health, consumer healthcare, generic drugs, et al, all intended to balance out the vagaries of today's prescription drug business. For Valeant, the Dermik business is yet another to add to its quiver. Dermik has a manufacturing plant in Quebec, handy for the Canadian-based Valeant, and its dermatology drugs will help beef up the company's franchise in that area. While the other products are focused in North America, the aesthetic side of the business--a.k.a. Sculptra--has a global presence, giving Valeant a geographic footprint to build upon. "Dermik's assets, both in the medical and aesthetic therapeutic areas, provide us with exciting opportunities to leverage our combined portfolios in our current markets as well as options to expand Valeant's presence to other territories," CEO J. Michael Pearson said in a statement. - see the release from Sanofi
- check out the Valeant announcement
- get more from Reuters ALSO: Sanofi said Lemtrada, the experimental multiple sclerosis drug acquired through the purchase of Genzyme, helped patients more than Merck KGaA's older medicine Rebif in a key study. Report Related Articles:
Valeant, J&J, Nestle nab new businesses
Valeant moves on to new M&A targets Read more about: Valeant, Dermik, Sanofi-Aventis, Mergers and Acquisitions
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 | An Expert Briefing: Biotechnology 101- An Industry Overview for the Non-Scientist - Tuesday, July 26th, 1 pm ET / 10 am PT
Join us as we define biotechnology and briefly explore the various biotechnology sectors. We will also focus on the healthcare sector and explain how basic science and technology are used during the drug discovery process.
Topics include: DNA, Proteins, Recombinant DNA, Small and Large Molecule Drugs, and more Register today. |
Novartis ($NVS) could soon be back on the acquisition trail. CEO Joe Jimenez (photo) told Swiss newspaper Aargauer Zeitung that the company's first priority is paying down $22 billion in debt, but strong cash flow should take care of that fairly quickly. And then, Novartis' appetite for deals is likely to sharpen, Reuters reports. "We could soon be in the position to go for acquisitions again, even if they are not as big as Alcon," Jimenez told the Swiss newspaper. The Zurich-based drugmaker bought the eye-care company Alcon in a two-phase deal that wrapped up earlier this year. Before that, Novatis snapped up other assets in smaller deals, such as the $400 million buyout of antibiotics company Protez Pharmaceuticals and the $932 million deal for Speedel Holding, its blood pressure drug partner. Jimenez also said Novartis is on track to meet its goal of boosting sales by double-digits this year. Its margin-improvement goals are also doable, he said, measured in constant currencies. Half-year results are due July 19. - read the news from Reuters
- get more from Bloomberg Related Articles:
Will Novartis follow through with Gen-Probe bid?
Novartis scouts bolt-on deals of up to $3B
Novartis wraps up Alcon with $12.9B deal Read more about: Novartis, Pharma buyout, Joe Jimenez
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What's a low-paid Chinese doctor to do? Become a pharma rep. As Bloomberg reports, physicians in China are abandoning medical practice for jobs in drug sales, finding that they can better their $300-a-month doctors' salary by marketing drugs, rather than prescribing them. The human resources firm Aon predicts that as many as 14,000 Chinese doctors will join foreign drugmakers over the next 5 years. Such is one unintended consequence of Big Pharma's Chinese gold rush. As drugmakers have laid off thousands of reps in the U.S. and Europe, they have been hiring big-time in emerging markets, especially China. The competition for drug reps in China is intense, too; turnover rates are high as major drugmakers such as Sanofi, Eli Lilly, Merck and Bayer recruit one another's salespeople. Needless to say, doctors are highly in demand because of their specialized knowledge. "In most other countries, it's extremely rare to get fully trained doctors as medical representatives," Chris Lee, managing director of Bayer Healthcare China, told the news service. Losing doctors to the drug business could exacerbate an existing shortage of physicians. China has only one doctor per every 7,000 people, and the government has been offering incentives such as free training to attract more people into primary care. Doctors willing to work in villages can win even more perks, such as relocation fees. It's all part of China's effort to revamp its healthcare system, the very effort that has experts predicting big growth in the Chinese drug market for years to come. That growth, of course, has foreign drugmakers salivating--and jockeying for their share. As Bloomberg notes, Aon predicts that foreign pharma's Chinese offices will hire at least 35,000 sales staff by the end of 2014. That would more than double their sales force, which amounted to 33,000 at the end of 2010. - read the Bloomberg story Related Articles:
Nine of 10 Big Pharmas cut sales reps in 2010
Chinese pharma's a challenge on all sides Read more about: China, Pharma sales reps
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Pfizer ($PFE) is poised for a Lipitor reprieve in Europe. The company has asked for 6 months' of additional exclusivity in most EU countries under regulations designed to promote pediatric drug trials. The extension could be worth almost $800 million as it staves off generic competition until May 2012, the Financial Times reports. Pfizer is in line for the 6-month extension because of studies in children with a genetic disorder that causes high cholesterol. The company plans to launch a chewable, grape-flavored version of Lipitor in November as a result of those trials. "Pfizer certainly pulled off a bit of a coup," Heart UK's Dermot Neely told the FT. The development is sparking some debate over the European pediatric trials regulations, which were instituted in 2007. But officials and experts say that the pediatric program has resulted in research that wouldn't have been conducted otherwise. "The regulations have been a big advance in developing medicines for children, but throw up some issues which it may be time to revisit," Alasdair Breckenridge, chairman of the UK's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, told the newspaper. Although the cholesterol fighter is already facing copycat rivals in some European countries--Spain, Finland and Norway--it's still under patent elsewhere in the EU. Pfizer has won or is seeking 6-month extensions in at least 11 other markets, the FT says, including the U.K., France and Germany. - read the FT story Related Articles:
Teva offers aid to U.K. pharmacies in Lipitor fight
Herper: Cheap Lipitor could increase health costs
Analysts: Lipitor may live longer than we think Read more about: Europe, Pfizer, Lipitor
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Bayer's birth-control franchise suffered a blow in Europe as patent regulators yanked protection on Yasmin. As the company's second-best-selling drug, Yasmin could now face generic competition later this year, Reuters notes. The European Patent Office's ruling comes after an appeal from the Novartis generics unit Hexal, which had been fighting Bayer's patent on a procedure that reduces the size of particles containing Yasmin's active ingredient. That micronization patent would have been in force through 2020 thanks to officials' 2006 decision confirming the patent. Now, Hexal is set to launch copies of Yasmin during the second half of this year, JP Morgan Cazenove analysts told investors after the ruling was announced. The European development comes after Yasmin lost patent protection in the U.S. last year. Sales in the states dropped last year to $1.6 billion. The silver lining for Bayer, however, is that European pricing on Yasmin is much lower than in the U.S., giving cheaper generics a smaller cost advantage, analysts said. Plus, in most European markets, women pay out-of-pocket for contraceptives, meaning that insurers pushing for less-expensive copycat drugs might have less of an impact. "Although a negative surprise to the market, this event has a very modest impact to our valuation," UniCredit analyst Craig Maxwell told the news service. - see the Reuters news Related Articles:
FDA reviews risks of drospirenone contraceptives
Studies highlight clot risk with Bayer pills
Teva breaks deal with Bayer to launch Yaz copy Read more about: Generics, Patent, Hexal, Yasmin
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@FiercePharma: Nine of 10 Big Pharmas cut sales reps in 2010. 
Notice the physician survey we ran in yesterday's FiercePharma just below this space? Readers can now expect the same exclusive insight into physician sentiments every Wednesday thanks to an innovative new partnership we've struck with Sermo.
