Are Late-Stage Deals Beginning to Lose Their Luster?
Executive Summary
If there has been anything stable in the pharmaceutical industry, it is an upward trend in late-stage deal prices. And yet, despite the increasing average deal price, the number of big deals is down. In several recent prominent examples, Big Pharma has sharpened its pencils--and said no. The implication: investors will no longer be able to equate late-stage products with blockbuster deals.
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Bioteching UCB-and Maybe Mid-Sized Pharma, Too
Celltech could not get the deal value it expected for its late-stage anti-inflammatory treatment--perhaps indicating a Big Pharma reluctance to pay the kinds of prices it has been paying. So UCB struck while it could. Led by new management it seized the opportunity to make what is a transforming move for the midsized European company-from undersized primary care group into a specialist, biopharma firm ranked alongside--indeed above--European biotech bellwether, Serono. If it works, the deal provides a model for other mid-sized European pharmas, looking for a way out of the primary care trap and, like UCB, to use mid-size advantages to power a sustainable long-term strategy.
Bioteching UCB-and Maybe Mid-Sized Pharma, Too
Celltech could not get the deal value it expected for its late-stage anti-inflammatory treatment--perhaps indicating a Big Pharma reluctance to pay the kinds of prices it has been paying. So UCB struck while it could. Led by new management it seized the opportunity to make what is a transforming move for the midsized European company-from undersized primary care group into a specialist, biopharma firm ranked alongside--indeed above--European biotech bellwether, Serono. If it works, the deal provides a model for other mid-sized European pharmas, looking for a way out of the primary care trap and, like UCB, to use mid-size advantages to power a sustainable long-term strategy.