Fluvirin: PowderJect's Best Shot
Executive Summary
Expanding the market for flu vaccine Fluvirin is PowderJect's near-term priority, given that the product accounts for 65% of sales. But the drug-delivery-turned-vaccines player is also trying to realize value from its needle-free injection technology, by way of second-generation vaccines.
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PowderMed's Vaccines: Out of Chiron, Into the Clinic
The £542 million ($959 million) that Chiron Corp. spent acquiring PowderJect Pharmaceuticals PLC in mid-2003 was a move by the US company to get its hands on PowderJect's thriving Fluvirin influenza vaccine business and, oddly enough, bulk up its infrastructure on its home soil.
PowderMed's Vaccines: Out of Chiron, Into the Clinic
The spinout of PowderJect's DNA vaccine technology following that company's acquisition by Chiron in mid-2003 was no surprise-these powder-injection assets are far too early-stage in the context of Chiron's vaccines pipeline. But newly minted PowderMed is no ordinary start-up. Despite the high-risk nature of its technology, the firm begins life with £20 million from four blue chip VCs, Big Pharma endorsement provided by GSK, five projects expected to enter the clinic within two years, and management that has overseen development of these products for more than six years.
Chiron/PowderJect: US Snaps Up Europe's Best
Chiron's acquisition of PowderJect is the most recent sign that the vaccines industry is coming of age, taking the field's only two mid-sized players up among the top-ranking Big Pharma. This deal was largely about infrastructure. But it suggests any European biotech with a valuable asset--be it product or distribution network--is an attractive takeover target for US firms.