AbbVie could use some M&A to help it diversify beyond best-seller Humira, a popular biosimilar target. And that’s something its newest hire knows a thing or two about.
The Illinois pharma is bringing on Henry Gosebruch, one of JPMorgan Chase’s two co-heads of North American mergers, as its chief strategy officer. The appointment is “about enhancing our focus and recognizing the increasingly important role that corporate strategy and business development will play in our future,” spokesman Greg Miley told FiercePharma via email.
Gosebruch is no stranger to pharma–or to AbbVie. He eventually became one of JPMorgan’s top dealmakers in the space after joining the bank in 1994 as an intern, The New York Times notes. Gosebruch went on to advise on transactions like Forest Labs’ sale to Actavis (now Allergan), Merck’s Cubist takeover, and 2014’s ultimately failed tie-up between AbbVie and Shire.
Now, with Gosebruch in tow, more moves could be on the way for the Chicago-area drugmaker. Since abandoning the Shire deal, AbbVie paid $21 billion for Imbruvica-maker Pharmacyclics, but the company may need more deals if dire predictions that some analysts have for Humira hold any weight.
Citi’s Andrew Baum, for one, sees biosimilars making a big dent in the drug’s revenues as soon as 2018. “At year 3, biosimilars will achieve 36% U.S. market share in Humira patients and 25% in established Humira patients,” he wrote in February, forecasting that knockoffs would sink sales to $6 billion by 2022.
By Carly Helfand
Source: Fierce Pharma
CureVac and the University of Texas’s MD Anderson Cancer Center have announced a co-development and licensing agreement to develop novel messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based cancer vaccines. The strategic collaboration will focus on the development of differentiated cancer vaccine candidates in selected haematological and solid tumour indications with high unmet medical needs.
FUJIFILM Corporation is planning to invest $1.2 billion to expand the planned FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, US. This news follows the organisation’s announcement of a $2 billion investment in the facility in March 2021. This additional financial boost totals the investment to over $3.2 billion, FUJIFILM confirmed.
Sanofi’s global restructuring and downsizing is now fully underway, with layoffs stretching to the company’s Belgian offices. Belgian newspaper De Tijd reports that 67 employees have been laid off at a site in Ghent and 32 jobs are on the chopping block at Sanofi’s Belgium HQ in Diegem.
