DotW: Let Down

Hellllooo, biz dev people. Where were you this week? I thought we had an agreement. You ink the deals; we write 'em up. I can only say my disappointment is exceeded only by my desire to get out of the office in celebration of one of the last official "summer Fridays"

Okay, okay. There were a couple of deals this week: Lonza offers $460 million for Patheon in a non-binding agreement (whoopee); Avigen/MediciNova, a deal that took only slightly less time than the formation of the seven continents; Crucell's covenants with the NIH and NIAID for flu mabs and an unnamed but "large supranational organization" for Quinvaxem; and the Vasogen/IntelliPharmaceutics merger for which no financials were disclosed. (Hint: you want coverage, we need details.)

Let's all agree it was slim pickins, which explains why Smart Brief's top story on Aug. 18 was about sea-worm based glue.

Which leads us to speculate on deals of the week to come. (It's your fault. You left us the opening.) What comes to mind? GSK buying Genmab if the stock slides lower. J&J taking out Basilea just to get out of the nasty arbitration cycle. Genzyme buying out Protalix (they can't really afford Shire, especially if Teva really is in the running) to have a steady supply of drug for Gaucher disease. Or maybe some deal between BIO and Dick Armey since he's worn out his welcome lobbying for pharma companies? Oh, and Obamacare.

Until next week, we leave you with this sentiment ala Radiohead and one final thought: GET BACK TO WORK.