Elan fall-out provides launch pad for new company
pharmafile | March 4, 2004 | News story | |
The withdrawal of Elan from Europe has provided a new platform for the launch of a new niche player in secondary care products.
Medeus Pharma, a private-equity funded pharmaceutical company has bought the sales and marketing unit from the financially troubled Elan for $120 million, and will specialise in partnering with non-European companies looking to break into the market.
The Elan buy-out gives Medeus sales of around $80 million with a focus on oncology, critical care and niche therapeutics indications within hospital speciality medicine. These include Abelcet, an anti-fungal treatment for hospitalised patients, a cardio-protective chemotherapy agent used in late-stage breast cancer and Targretrin, a novel treatment for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.
Sir Richard Sykes, former chief executive of Glaxo Wellcome has been appointed chairman of the new company by private equity group Apax Partners.
He said: "Apax Partners has brought together a very experienced senior management team with an already successful sales and marketing infrastructure. As an independent business, Medeus Pharma will be able to offer biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies outstanding access to the European market. We anticipate this to be of particular interest to North American and other non-European companies with products of less than $200 million in peak sales."
Bryan Morton, who has 25 years of experience in the industry, including posts at US firms Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb has been appointed the new company chief executive.
"In the US people are crying out to get access to Europe for drugs which are too small for big pharmas but are specialist niche drugs," he told Reuters. "We can provide infrastructure, we can register the products and promote them.
Mr Morton says the company has already discussed alliances with 20 companies and expects to sign "a couple of important deals" by the end of the year.
Elan was forced to sell its European business as part of a recovery plan which has now produced $2 billion worth of savings, exceeding its target by $500 million.
Accounting irregularities uncovered in 2002 sent Elan shares into freefall as investors fearful of Enron-style frauds deserted the company. Former banker Kelly Martin, appointed as chief executive at the beginning of 2003 has now declared the company's recovery plan complete, and has been further buoyed by news of its lead pipeline product Antegren (natalizumab).
Shares in the company climbed 30% when Elan and its development partner US biotech company Biogen Idec announced that the multiple sclerosis drug would be ready for FDA filing by the middle of this year.
Antegren is the first in a new class of monoclonal antibodies designed to block the action of selective adhesive molecules (SAM), immune cells implicated in a variety of inflammatory diseases. The companies say they are also investigating the drug use against Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis, and analysts predict the drug could reach peak sales of between $500 million and $1billion.
Meanwhile, GlaxoSmithKline has bought back the UK rights to analgesic product Ultiva, which it sold to Elan in 2000.
Mike Thompson, GSK vice president for specialist business units said he was "delighted to bring Ultiva back into the GSK family of medicines" and that the company's franchise of innovative critical care products would continue to grow.
Ultiva is used in the induction and maintenance of general anaesthesia and for analgesia and sedation in mechanically ventilated intensive care patients, and is claimed to reduce the time on ventilators compared to other products in its class.
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Elan sells European sales and marketing business for $120 million
Monday , January 05, 2004
