A Vial Decision
Executive Summary
We have heard of current cases in the drug industry in which the Federal Trade Commission is trying to predict the regulatory future. If the FTC is using its predictive powers as the basis for anti-trust decisions going forward, as appears at least in part to have been the case when it announced its intention to block the proposed merger between cervical cancer screening companies Cytyc and Digene, we find the reasoning problematic, and philosophically troubling.
You may also be interested in...
Your Friend, the FTC: Nastech Solves a Knotty Anti-Trust Problem
When the FTC forced Pfizer/Pharmacia to divest Nastech's nasal apomorphine--a potential competitor of Pfizer's Viagra--Nastech managed what may be a unique solution: it got the product back, with additional financing-and in so doing, solved the very different problems of Pharmacia, Pfizer, the FTC, and itself.
Cytyc's Second Child: Dressed Alike, But Very Different
Cytyc's purchase a year ago of Pro-Duct Health added a product--a ductal lavage catheter--around which it could leverage the clinical and marketing capabilities it had constructed to commercialize ThinPrep, its liquid cytology sample collection platform now used in roughly 60% of Pap smear applications. But Cytyc is facing a much different set of challenges with ductal lavage. Physicians and patients are not used to undergoing a periodic ctyologic screening routine equivalent to Pap. Also, it may take a combination of ductal lavage, biomarkers, and protein expression patterns to distinguish which high-risk women with mildly atypical epithelial ductal cells will get cancer. Cytyc had intended to obtain a molecular marker development capability through the acquisition of Digene Corp., but the FTC shot down the deal. Unless and until it develops internal R&D, it could remain an opportunistic acquirer, like a specialty pharma company perpetually searching for an encore but holding few chips with which to outbid other players.
Cytyc's Second Child: Dressed Alike, But Very Different
Cytyc's purchase a year ago of Pro-Duct Health added a product--a ductal lavage catheter--around which it could leverage the clinical and marketing capabilities it had constructed to commercialize ThinPrep, its liquid cytology sample collection platform now used in roughly 60% of Pap smear applications. But Cytyc is facing a much different set of challenges with ductal lavage. Physicians and patients are not used to undergoing a periodic ctyologic screening routine equivalent to Pap. Also, it may take a combination of ductal lavage, biomarkers, and protein expression patterns to distinguish which high-risk women with mildly atypical epithelial ductal cells will get cancer. Cytyc had intended to obtain a molecular marker development capability through the acquisition of Digene Corp., but the FTC shot down the deal. Unless and until it develops internal R&D, it could remain an opportunistic acquirer, like a specialty pharma company perpetually searching for an encore but holding few chips with which to outbid other players.