GSK/Actelion: Phase III Value Is in the Eye of the Beholder
Executive Summary
GSK paid a very large upfront fee ($148mm) for access to Actelion's Phase III insomnia candidate almorexant, but still some were disappointed; the Big Pharma is only paying 40% of the costs of the Phase III program. The truth is that even late-stage primary care assets--especially those with novel mechanisms of action--are under intense regulatory scrutiny and licensors are having to take on more risk.
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Actelion has become Europe's most successful R&D-based biotech largely on the success of Tracleer for PAH, a specialist indication. Now, facing competition in PAH, but in line with its strategy of following innovation wherever it leads, the company's starting to build a primary care-focused commercial operation to support GP-targeted pipeline assets. That takes Actelion into a very new game, and risks destroying the laissez-faire culture seen as crucial to its unusually high R&D productivity. But Actelion reckons a well-planned, step-wise, and nimble approach to primary care marketing will allow it to retain both the maximum value from its drugs, and its biotech-ness.