Industry Update: the Latest Developments in Therapeutic Delivery

Abstract

The present Industry Update covers the period 16 March to 15 April 2011, with information sourced from company press releases, media newswires, regulatory agencies and relevant patent offices. There was considerable activity in the area of ‘Business development’; however for reasons of brevity, only those, which in my view, are most relevant are included. Cephalon continues to build its business through acquisitions, in this case the privately held company Gemin X, which has a promising portfolio of targeted cancer therapeutics. SuperGen and Astex Therapeutics have agreed a merger from which Astex Pharmaceuticals will emerge as a stronger commercial entity with critical mass that may find itself a prospective acquisition in the future. Pfizer have agreed to off-load Capsugel to KKR at a cost of US$2.375 billion in cash. A significant number of licensing deals have also taken place, a notable number involving large Japanese pharmaceutical companies. A rash of product approvals occurred both in the EU and the USA following the pre- and post-christmas lull, and positive top-line results from two Phase III multiple sclerosis trials involving laquinimod and dimethyl fumarate, were of particular interest. An exciting range of journal publications also appeared relating to potential therapeutic targets or targeting strategies including the LNA-based compounds developed by Santaris Pharma, identification of inhibitors of the Wnt signaling pathway, and the synthesis and evaluation of the multimodal porphysome nanovesicles.