Generic pharmaceutical company Mylan will merge with Pfizer’s off-patent medicines unit Upjohn. The new firm will be based in the US, with anticipated revenues of $19–20 billion (£15–16 billion) in 2020.
The intention is to combine Pfizer’s distribution network in China and other emerging markets with Mylan’s existing products in developed markets and future generics, but the deal does not include Pfizer’s biosimilars.
‘Upjohn has off-patent drugs like Viagra (sildenafil), Lipitor (atorvastatin) and Lyrica (pregabalin), for which Mylan has filed generic applications. This makes me wonder what happens when there is overlap between Mylan’s generics and the branded Pfizer products,’ says Josh Whitehill, a lawyer specialising in pharmaceutical and biotechnology patent law at Goodwin Procter in New York, US. ‘Do they [sell them off], or does the new company just stop selling them?’ he asks.
‘It will be interesting to see if this starts a trend of large branded drug companies selling off or spinning off their off-patent assets,’ Whitehill says. Rather than a consolidation, the deal represents a shift of Upjohn into Mylan, he states. ‘I don’t see this as disrupting the status quo, it just really is giving Mylan more legs to reach places where it couldn’t before.’
By: Rebecca Trager
Source: Chemistry World
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.
