Pharma, biotech increasingly keen to get together

Pharma, biotech increasingly keen to get together - Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUKL0314369620071004?rpc=44

Lots of pressure on pharma companies to have new, patent-protected medicines once their patents wear out. They are now looking to snatch up biotech companies... But are they too aggressive?


URICH (Reuters) - Major drugmakers are queueing up to invest in medicines to fill their drug pipelines, biotechs are increasingly keen to do deals and, with 2012 patent expiries looming, prices are set to go even higher, industry insiders said.

"The deal making between pharma and biotech has become a dominant financial force," Peter Reinisch, a partner at venture capital company Global Life Science Ventures, said on the sidelines of a Sachs Associates biotech meeting in Zurich.

AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.L: Quote, Profile, Research) underscored the rush into biotech with its $15.6 billion acquisition of MedImmune this year, which a number of analysts and investors have criticized, arguing AstraZeneca overpaid.

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Lehman Brothers said in a report last month the price of acquiring promising medicines from biotech firms is soaring, rising by about 45 percent annually over the last three years.