And the Roger Goes To ... Your 2009 Biopharma Deal of the Year Winners

The Race for the Roger has ended. Thank you for voting in our second annual IN VIVO Blog Deal of the Year contest. The envelopes, please.

Actually, before we get to announcing your winners, let us point out one surprising (to us) thing: you clearly care more about M&A/Alliances than the Exits/Financing or Big Pharma categories. Because even though you didn't even have to leave the page to vote on all three, the M&A/Alliances category racked up eight times more votes than the Big Pharma category, and more than five times the votes in the Exits/Financings category.

That's either some impressive focus or impressive laziness. Either way, pat yourselves on the back, readers, because you did come out in your thousands. Apparently Big Pharma DOTY is like 'Best Supporting Actor,' Exit/Financing DOTY is akin to 'Best Original Screenplay' and M&A/Alliance DOTY is 'Best Picture'. Who knew?


The IN VIVO Blog 2009 Big Pharma Deal of the Year, by a nose, is Roche's acquisition of Genentech (27% of the vote). We confess that we didn't think this one would be close, with Genentech the sentimental favorite. The second place deal, Pfizer and GSK's ViiV Healthcare JV, garnered 25% of the vote. But because this was the category with the fewest votes, only 11 votes separated the two. Third place goes to Wy-Pfi. Congratulations Roche and Genentech (A Member of the Roche Group), and if you'd like to make an "acceptance speech" here on the blog, please contact us.

The IN VIVO Blog 2009 Exit/Financing Deal of the Year, in a landslide, is Movetis' IPO (47%). Bringing in that kind of cash in what is still a harsh climate for biotechs is quite impressive, even if Movetis isn't a build-it-from-scratch company and it has something relatively few other biotechs do: an approved product. Well done, Movetis! For your next trick, reimbursement! Coming in second was Abbott's purchase of PanGenetics NGF antibody (20%) and in a tie for third with 10% apiece we had Vertex's milestone sale and Lundbeck's CVR-heavy acquisition of Ovation. Movetisians, drop us a note here if you'd like to thank the academy.

The IN VIVO Blog 2009 M&A/Alliance Deal of the Year goes to Elan and Johnson & Johnson for their deal around Elan's Alzheimer's immunotherapy program and the 18% stake that went with it (39%). Congratulations! This deal really had it all. We laughed, we cried. Only time will tell whether everyone is laughing or crying in the end, but for now everyone's risk is nicely hedged. Coming in second and not far behind Elan/J&J is the deuterated duo of GSK and Concert Pharmaceuticals (35%). Third goes to Astellas and Medivation (22%) for their prostate cancer alliance. We should also mention that in a category where about 3600 votes were cast, GSK's acquisition of some of UCB's emerging market assets got only 15, good for a rounded-down 0%. Weren't emerging markets all the rage last year? Elan and J&J, the floor is yours. If you hear the orchestra, it's time to wrap it up.

Thanks to everyone who voted. You can see a full breakdown of the voting at our DOTY page. Special thanks to Chris Trudeau for the Roger artwork and Dave Cavino for creating the DOTY page.