Deals of the Week Seeks the Luck of the Irish

Perhaps you’ll feast on corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and an adult beverage or two this weekend, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. If your waistline should fluctuate a bit from the indulgence, think of Dublin, Ireland-headquartered Shire plc, a company that fattened up with one deal while trimming down its efforts in another area this week.

Shire’s recent growth has been tied to specialty business areas in which the company believes it can introduce successful drugs supported by small sales forces. Among its strong performers are two orphan drugs for lysosomal disorders, including Elaprase (idursulfase) for Hunter syndrome and Replagal (agalsidase alfa) for Fabry disease. The latter, long marketed in Europe, seemed poised for U.S. approval, thanks in part to a treatment IND that allowed its distribution in the wake of Genzyme’s manufacturing issues around Fabrazyme (agalsidase beta). But Shire’s dialogue with FDA soured as the agency requested a more arduous series of trials than Shire expected, leading the company to withdraw its BLA filing for Replagal on the afternoon of Mar. 14.

Rather than drown its sorrows, though, the company bounced back with an acquisition the following morning. Shire hopes it’s found a four-leaf clover in FerroKin Biosciences, a hematology specialist for which it paid $100 million up-front, in a deal that features an additional $225 million earn-out. FerroKin’s key asset is FBS0701, a Phase II candidate that helps rid excess buildup of iron in the blood and organs, typically found in patients who undergo frequent blood transfusions. Lawson Macartney, senior VP of Shire’s emerging business unit, told The Pink Sheet DAILY that the acquisition is part of Shire’s plan to move deeper into hematology; it already has Xagrid (anagrelide) for essential thrombocythaemia, which generated $90.6 million in revenue last year.

Shire hopes the oral capsule FBS0701 will compete with Novartis’ Exjade (deferasirox), another iron chelator delivered as an oral solution. That drug carries a black-box warning for renal and hepatic impairment and gastrointestinal hemorrhage; Shire thinks its compound can improve on Exjade's safety profile. The luckiest parties in the deal – or maybe they were just good – are FerroKin’s venture investors. They include Burrill & Co., Clarus Ventures, MP Healthcare Venture Management, and HealthCap, all of whom enjoyed a healthy exit two years after FerroKin’s $12 million Series B round.

Whether you indulge yourself or not, we hope you’ll enjoy the holiday responsibly. A-rovin’, a-rovin’, a-rovin’ we go, with the latest installment of…

Merck/Calibr: Merck renewed its commitment to academic research, and to San Diego, making a $90 million investment to create the California Institute of Biomedical Research, or Calibr. The funding, announced Mar. 15, will span seven years, and Calibr will be run by prominent Scripps chemist and entrepreneur Peter Schultz. Schultz has had his share of experience with biotechs, founding eight himself: Affymax Research Institute, Syrrx, Kalypsys, Phenomix, Symyx Therapeutics, Ilypsa, Ambrx and Wildcat Technologies. He also founded and was the institute director of the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation in San Diego from 1999 to 2010. Backing Schultz’s leadership will be a scientific advisory board led by Harvard's Christopher Walsh, and will include Merck Research Laboratories president Peter Kim. A board of directors led by 5AM Ventures founder and managing partner John Diekman will also help run the show. The staff at Calibr, which will eventually include 100 to 150 people, as well as the board of directors and the scientific advisory board will collaborate to choose the projects that the institute will take on. Schultz estimates that once everything is up and running, the institute will handle 15 to 20 ongoing projects at any given time. Projects will be chosen from academic institutions and will be based on “novel biology.” Merck is one of many Big Pharmas trying to bridge the gap between industry and academia, including Pfizer and Bayer, which have also established similarly structured institutes in scientific hotspots around the country. – Lisa LaMotta

GlaxoSmithKline/Epistem: GlaxoSmithKline and U.K. biotech Epistem PLC announced a three-year collaboration March 9 around using Epistem’s proprietary RNA-Amp technology platform to identify biomarkers useful in development treatments for and/or treating fibrotic disease. Financial terms were not disclosed. Several companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb and Gilead Sciences, are competing to bring the first drug therapy for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis to market in the U.S. – worldwide, IPF is thought to offer a potential blockbuster market. As of March 2012, GSK’s pipeline lists 15 compounds in clinical development for respiratory and immuno-inflammation indications, most of them targeted at asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but none specifically cited as a candidate for fibrotic disease. The collaboration with Epistem will focus on identifying key characteristics of diseased fibrotic tissue – RNA-Amp is a highly sensitive amplification technology that can derive gene-expression data from minimal tissue samples and/or numbers of cells. Previously, the biotech partnered in 2009 with Novartis to collaborate on development of new therapeutic candidates for epithelial conditions, including cancer and gastrointestinal disorders.—Joseph Haas

Biogen Idec/MAKScientific: Discovery firm MAKScientific LLC has signed a big partner, Biogen Idec, in a small deal that gives Biogen an option to select discovery-stage drug candidates for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases. The privately-held, Boston-based drug discovery firm works in cannabinoid pathways. In the partnership, announced March 14, Biogen gains an exclusive worldwide option to select discovery-stage drug candidates for all indications worldwide. The company will pay up to $3 million if it chooses to exercise the option and an additional $31 million in milestone payments for clinical development. – Jessica Merrill

Sanofi/Pluromed: Sanofi has today announced the acquisition of Mass.-based surgical goo maker Pluromed for undisclosed terms. The deal brings Sanofi's biosurgery division Pluromed's proprietary polymer technology Rapid Transition Polymers and the FDA-approved LeGoo, a gel used during surgeries to temporarily plug blood vessels. (Conveniently for Sanofi and for our half-grasp of the language, LeGoo probably means The Goo in French.) The LeGoo goo was approved by FDA in September and in today's release Pluromed CEO Jean-Marie Vogel gives Sanofi a vote of confidence for its ability to launch the goo and drive adoption. Formerly Genzyme Biosurgery, Sanofi's biosurgery unit markets a suite of products focused on cartilage repair and osteoarthritis treatment. The deal underscores Sanofi's willingness to further diversify away from its core drugs business. -- Chris Morrison

GSK/Omega Pharma: European consumer health care products firm Omega Pharma bolstered its already broad OTC portfolio with six brands from GlaxoSmithKline, but GSK’s sluggish consumer business remains saddled with the once-prized weight-loss drug Alli. Omega Pharma will pay €470 million ($619 million) for six brands – Lactacyd feminine wash products, Abtei supplements, Solpadeine analgesics, Zantac antacid, Nytol sleep aids and the allergy drug Beconase, the firms said March 15. The combined sales of the Glaxo brands exceeded €200 million in 2011, and “will significantly strengthen Omega Pharma’s product portfolio and will create critical mass for the company in key markets including Germany, the U.K., Poland and Italy,” the Belgian firm said. Included in the deal, part of GSK’s plan to simplify its consumer business by selling 19 OTC brands worth about 10% of the firm’s total consumer business, Omega will also acquire the Big Pharma’s Herrenberg manufacturing site in Germany. GSK originally wanted to sell the brands to a single global buyer, but parceled out 17 North American OTC lines to Prestige Brands Holdings in December. GSK says it “remains in active discussions” about the sale of the few lingering brands it wants to sell outside of Europe and North America – including the beleaguered Alli, the lower-dose version of Roche’s prescription weight-loss drug Xenical that has seen sales fall steadily and sharply since its much-anticipated and briefly successful launch in 2007.—Elizabeth Crawford 

Alcon/ThromboGenics: Having previously planned to market its lead compound itself, Belgian biotech ThromboGenics has now taken a different tack, and licensed ex-U.S. commercialization rights to its vitreomacular adhesion therapy, ocriplasmin, to the Novartis eye care unit, Alcon. ThromboGenics says it still wants to build up a marketing organization in the U.S., and will work closely with Alcon on ocriplasmin's marketing in the top five European markets. However, Alcon will market the product in more than 40 countries when approved – it is awaiting approval in Europe, and is expected to be resubmitted for priority review in the U.S. shortly. The agreement between ThromboGenics and Alcon is valued at $500 million in total, with ThromboGenics receiving a hefty upfront payment of $100 million, and just over a similar amount in milestone payments, which will probably push the company into profitability this year. Ocriplasmin stops the vitreous humor from sticking and pulling on the retinal membrane at the back of the eye, which causes blurred vision and, in severe cases, macular holes and central blindness. The product also has potential in the treatment of age-related macular generation, and could be combined with a VEGF inhibitor such as Novartis's Lucentis (ranibizumab). The deal is the first in the biopharmaceuticals area to be concluded by Alcon since it was acquired by Novartis last year. - John Davis

 

Pfizer/Biocon: In our "No Deal" of the week, Pfizer walked away from a $100 million-plus investment on March 12, terminating its biosimilars partnership with Biocon Ltd., India's largest biotechnology firm, under which it would have commercialized generic versions of four diabetes drugs worldwide. Both parties said the split reflects a desire by each company to focus on "individual priorities for their respective biosimilars businesses." Pfizer said it remains committed to biosimilars development, particularly in the areas of monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins. Biocon will continue its effort to develop and market biosimilar versions of recombinant insulin as well as of Sanofi's Lantus, Novo Nordik's Novolog and Eli Lilly's Humalog. At the time the agreement was signed in October 2010, Pfizer, not a traditional player in the diabetes space, projected a growing diabetes market that would reach $40 billion a year for drugs and devices, with insulin products controlling about 35% of that business, or $14 billion. Pfizer was to pay Biocon $200 million up-front, with the potential for up to $150 million in development and regulatory milestones, along with potential sales royalties on the four products. As of the split, Pfizer had paid Biocon $100 million, with the other $100 million kept in escro, tied to progress on building a biosimilars manufacturing and R&D facility in Malaysia. Biocon will continue building that facility, with the funds from Pfizer. - J.H.

Thanks to Jessica Merrill, who reported on the Shire/FerroKin deal for Pink Sheet DAILY. Magically delicious leprechaun cake image courtesy of Flickr user Signature SugarArt, reproduced under Creative Commons license.

Notes from BIO: Green Revolution

We've survived BIO and most of us are home, ready to relax after a loooooong week. But before you sign off, enjoy our favorite off-topic anecdote from the conference.

It was Monday evening, I believe, and half of IVB's BIO contingent was comparing notes from the day, not to mention the various lagers at a brewpub, and we had the good luck to sit next to an agricultural scientist from one of the large seed companies. Now, ag-bio is far afield from our various areas of expertise, but we know enough about monocultures, Michael Pollan and pollen drift to gin up a lively conversation. Even so, it took us a while to screw up our courage and ask the real burning question: How many ag-bio scientists grow their own? And we don't mean soybeans.

Our new friend, an avid home-brewer of beer by the way, thought about it for a few seconds, put on a straight face, and said, "Half probably know how. Thirty percent probably would give advice on the QT to those looking for it. And maybe five percent would actually do something to risk losing their jobs."

We all agreed that this was highly unscientific data. But seeing how the federal government has deprioritized prosecution of medical-marijuana cases, and a few Northern California municipalities have either decided to look the other way or move toward taxation of the medical marijuana dispensaries that have grown like, well, weeds, our interlocutor admitted looking forward to the day growing pot became a legitimate job in his home state. He might even consider a third career, brewing beer being the second. We know VCs are piling into green tech startups, but we're curious how, ahem, green they're willing to get.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

Photo courtesy of flickr user paraflyer.

FDA Gives Cimzia the Thumbs Up in RA—At Last

UCB’s Cimzia deserved a break. After a troubled developmental and regulatory history (read about it here and here) the drug finally received FDA approval for RA today, earlier than most expected, and with a label that analysts describe as “the best possible.”

Brussels-based UCB received a complete response letter for the pegylated anti-TNF antibody in January, requesting a new safety update. That led most analysts to predict approval towards the end of this year at best—even though UCB had submitted its safety update at the end of April. Nor had anyone held much hope of approval with a pre-filled syringe and the option of dosing both fortnightly or once-monthly, since neither were tested in all Phase III trials. The approval grants both.

That’s lucky, since UCB will need all the tail-wind it can find to gain market share in a highly competitive market. Already on the market since last May for Crohn’s disease, Cimzia will be the fifth anti-TNF in RA, joining well-established incumbents including Abbott Laboratories’ twice-monthly Humira, which sold over $1 billion in the first quarter of this year, and Johnson & Johnson’s recently-approved once-monthly golimumab (Simponi). Humira’s pre-filled syringe formulation has already given it a huge lead over J&J/Schering-Plough’s Remicade, which is given by infusion. As such, “we have cautious expectations for Cimzia,” writes Piper Jaffray’s Richard Parkes, adding that the drug might eventually garner a 5% share of the RA biologics market, or about €593 million in peak sales.

But UCB is doing its damnedest to trump even Humira’s pre-filled syringe with a device, developed in conjunction with consumer products company OXO, that it describes as state-of-the-art. According to the press release, it’s ‘easy-to’ everything: open, grip, plunge, read….in sum, it’s a device designed to make self-injection as simple as pie for RA patients.

UCB isn’t solely banking on super-duper finger grips and easy-to-push syringe plungers to provide sufficient differentiation versus Simponi, and on a once-monthly dosing option to help it steal share from Humira, though. “We’ll sell it on efficacy,” a company spokesperson told The IN VIVO Blog, pointing to the drug’s fast-onset and long-lasting effects that result from its being the only pegylated anti-TNF. “I think it will go beyond $1 billion,” the spokesperson continues.

That would certainly be nice, since UCB faces a tough 2010, with its biggest-selling epilepsy drug levetiracetam (Keppra) facing generics in Europe (it’s already generic in the US), allergy drug levocetirizine (Xyzal) losing exclusivity in the US (and in the EU in 2011), and a loss of royalty income inherited from its 2004 acquisition of Celltech.

“You don’t have to be first to be best,” points out UCB, and that’s true. It’s also true that docs are calling for more choice in a market that’s growing, and where many patients don’t respond to existing drugs. But it will be an uphill battle for UCB even with a favorable label and a snazzy device—particularly now, when even Humira is suffering a growth slowdown as patients back away from pricey biologics.

UCB is desperate to prove the skeptics wrong. “I don’t blame them [the analysts] for their caution,” says the spokesperson, given Cimzia’s dodgy track record with FDA. But now that it’s through, UCB’s 150-strong US RA sales force is in place and the drug will go to its first patient within 24 hours, the company says. “We’ll prove we can get more than 5% market share,” the spokesperson says. “We’ll walk the talk.”

image of delirium tremens (belgian ale) by flickr user Nic Launceford used under a creative commons license

Deals of the Year Nominee: Alnylam/Takeda

Ah, awards season. Why should film critics have all the fun? And voting! It's not just for presidential elections. This year your IN VIVO Blog team is nominating a handful of alliances, acquisitions, financings, regulatory negotiations and legislative compromises in our First Annual DOTY competition. And then you, dear readers, will vote (early and often, we hope) for the winner. Imaginary federal and international biopharmaceutical statutes prohibit us from awarding a monetary prize. But our winners, when they die, on their deathbeds, they will receive total consciousness. So they've got that going for them, which is nice.

This year's biggest RNAi deal isn't quite as big as last year's biggest RNAi deal, but we like Alnylam's Japanese alliance with Takeda nonetheless. First off it reinforces Takeda's position as one of 2008's pre-eminent dealmakers--the February Amgen alliance and the April acquisition of Millennium were its first two big noises this year--and it also marks Alnylam's move from simple-yet-unprecedented platform monetization into the kind of technology-for-product-rights deal that could see it gaining access to others' development candidates.

At the time of the deal we intentionally mangled Alnylam CEO John Maraganore's kegger analogy by which he describes RNAi's potential to help relieve the productivity problem in drug development and provide free beer for all mankind. (Did we do so again? Oh dear.) It's fair to say that this remains a ways off, but meanwhile Takeda's cash ought to keep the fridge full in Cambridge.

Alnylam received $100 million in up-front cash and $50 million in near-term technology transfer payments for a non-exclusive license to its RNAi platform in oncology and metabolic disease, and first right of negotiation on its RNAi programs in Asia (excluding ALN-RSV01) should Alnylam look for a partner there. Alnylam also gets first right of negotiation on any project Takeda decides to shop in the US and more importantly, gets opt-in rights for 50/50 co-development/co-commercialization deals in the US on up to four Takeda programs of its choosing (exercisable all the way through the start of Phase III), plus the usual gajillion biobucks in development and commercial milestone payments.

As we noted when the May deal was signed: it bears repeating that Alnylam has once again struck a non-exclusive deal--and can go out and re-license those same therapeutic areas again at any point. That said, on the call to announce the deal Maraganore essentially laid down some ground rules. "We wouldn't do a platform license for a double-digit upfront payment," he said. "Given the opportunity cost of enabling a partner we have to and will be very discriminate in how we value these kinds of partnership alliances."

In other words, pony up $100 million or it's not worth our time and effort. How many triple-digit deals it can do before its proposition is diluted below the $100 million low-water mark remains to be seen (it hasn't done any since, though there is plenty of time to fulfil its stated goal of two or more new partnerships through the end of 2009).

In these cash-constrained times, the deal allows Alnylam to end the year with approximately $500 million in cash. It makes Takeda the sole big RNAi player in Japan (though Japanese rights to Alnylam's Phase IIALN-RSV01 product were not included in the deal and later licensed to Kyowa Hakko [our take here]) and cement's the Japanese pharma's place among the most active and creative dealmakers of 2008. And it sets the RNAi pioneer up for pipeline building down the road.

Readers, it's up to you. The voting begins next week and will be open into the new year. No stuffing the ballot box!

image via flickr user furiousgeorge81 used under a creative commons license.

While You Were at the Beer Festival II

For those of you expecting an Olympic theme to the weekend roundup, well, there's always next week. Because this weekend we enjoyed our annual pilgrimage to the Great British Beer Festival in London. A quick review was in the works until a quick look at last year's beer festival post revealed we were about to say pretty much the same exact thing.

Suffice to say that Sharps, Caledonian, and Hook Norton were bringing their A-game as usual (wish we could say the same about our photographer). Another stalwart putting in a good showing was Cairngorm; its Trade Winds was particularly nice though we're still leaning toward old favorite Sharps' Atlantic IPA as our beer of the fest. A nice surprise for us was a lemongrass beer from Hop Back, Spring Zing.

There was little industry news with zing over the weekend, so we've put on the beer goggles so you don't have to:

• Pfizer has reached another settlement over a generic Lipitor, Reuters reports, though there are no details available regarding the Big Pharma's deal with Apotex.
  
• IMC11F8 is the catchy name given to Imclone's next-generation, fully human antibody viewed by many as a son-of-Erbitux. The candidate, not yet in pivotal trials, is at the core of the ongoing BMS/Imclone negotiation, points out today's Wall Street Journal. Bristol claims rights to the follow-up under the companies original 2001 alliance. Imclone disputes that entitlement, though hasn't always done so, says the Journal.


• Via the SF Chronicle, one doctor's crusade to, uh, get a cool epocrates application on his iPhone so he didn't have to carry around an extra gadget.

Takeda's Millions Buy a Lot of Beer

In the 1902 novel Brewster's Millions (updated famously in 1985 in a film starring the great Richard Pryor), a man must spend every penny of a $1 million inheritance within a short span in order to receive a second $7 million inheritance. As you might imagine (particularly in the film version), hilarity ensues.

The Monty Brewster of the biopharmaceutical world these days is clearly Takeda Pharmaceuticals. We're not saying that Takeda is throwing its money around unwisely--in the pharma world, only time will tell. But it's certainly true that in recent months Japan's number one pharma sure hasn't been afraid to spend it, and seems prepared to provide its partners with some very generous deal terms.

In February Takeda took on Japanese rights to a substantial bit of Amgen's pipeline--$200 million up-front--plus an additional late-stage deal with Amgen on the Phase III Phase III motesanib (another $100 million u/f). Last month it was $8.8 billion to acquire Millennium Pharmaceuticals and $50 million up-front for Cell Genesys' GVAX immunotherapy program.

And today the Japanese pharma signed a deal with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals to non-exclusively license the RNA interference pioneer's technology under terms that were certainly not small beer.

In fact, on a conference call today to discuss the companies' new alliance Alnylam CEO John Maraganore remarked that if the innovation gap in the biopharmaceutical world was a thirst, that RNAi was both "the beer and the tap" to quench that thirst. Or something. Really, he had us at beer. Because if his analogy is apt, Takeda just spent enough money to throw one hell of a party.

The terms, as we noted earlier this morning, were generous and along the lines of Alnylam's similarly non-exclusive platform deal with Roche last year, if a bit scaled down to fit the number of therapeutic areas in which Takeda can operate. Alnylam gets $100 million in up-front cash and $50 million in near-term technology transfer payments for a non-exclusive license to its RNAi platform in oncology and metabolic disease, and first right of negotiation on its RNAi programs in Asia (excluding ALN-RSV01) should Alnylam look for a partner there. Alnylam also gets first right of negotiation on any project Takeda decides to shop in the US and more importantly, gets opt-in rights for 50/50 co-dev/co-commercialization deals in the US on up to four Takeda programs of its choosing (exercisable all the way through the start of Phase III), plus the usual gajillion biobucks in development and commercial milestone payments.

It bears repeating that Alnylam has once again struck a Non-Exclusive deal--and can go out and re-license those same therapeutic areas again at any point. That said, on today's call Maraganore essentially laid down some ground rules. "We wouldn't do a platform license for a double-digit upfront payment," he said. "Given the opportunity cost of enabling a partner we have to and will be very discriminate in how we value these kinds of partnership alliances."

In other words, pony up $100 million or it's not worth our time and effort. How many triple-digit deals it can do before its proposition is diluted below the $100 million low-water mark remains to be seen, though we wouldn't bet that they're done yet.

And if you're worried that Takeda is running out of dry powder, don't. The company has plenty of money left to expand the Alnylam deal into additional therapeutic areas (the deal terms allow for bolting on new therapeutic areas at $50 million per) or do the late-stage deal that its analysts are jonesing for.

Still, any deal is more likely to come with a price tag in the range of the Alnylam upfront than the Millennium acquisition. Takeda's CEO Yasuchika Hasegawa told IN VIVO last week that he doesn't "see the necessity of an acquisition of similar magnitude [to Millennium] in the near future." Hasegawa's preference: fill the yawning gaps left by the pending Prevacid and Actos patent expiries via organic growth.

For our in-depth look at Takeda's strategy you'll have to wait for Ellen Licking's IN VIVO feature in June. But it seems Takeda realizes that it was slow to catch on in large molecules--not an uncommon mistake among its pharma ilk--and making a splash in oligonucleotides was high on its list of priorities.

photo from flickr user bob the lomond used under a creative commons license

While You Were ...

So what were you up to this weekend. Perhaps you were flying to Hamburg for the BIO shindig? Or throwing back a few half-pints at the (outstanding) Woking Beer Festival? Re-reading "The Naked and the Dead," maybe. Whatever your poison (ours was Tryst Brewery's Carronade IPA) we hope you had a good weekend.

• Novo Nordisk tells the Times: Exubera may have gone up in smoke, but inhaled insulin isn't dead yet. We'll be taking an in-depth look at the future of inhaled insulin in the next IN VIVO.


• Medical meeting season rumbles onward; at the American College of Rheumatology, on Saturday, NicOx presented further Phase III data from its '301' study of naproxcinod. Specifically, the company reported positive GI- and blood pressure-related safety and adverse event data for the drug candidate, a nitric oxide-donating form of naproxen that some analysts hail as a blockbuster alternative to the blighted Cox-2s. We've written extensively about naproxcinod here.


• Drug-coated stents are the new eggs. First they're good for you. Then they're bad for you. Now, apparently, good for you again. But manufacturers aren't holding their breath for a massive rebound in sales. The New York Times reports.


• Has Merck been punished adequately in the whole Vioxx debacle? Not everyone thinks so. Pharmagossip rounds up the usual suspects.

While You Were Coming Back

It would be wrong for us not to mention the Red Sox in this space, the Boston nine having completed their three-game comback victory over the Tribe last night (sorry, Steve). There are a few contributors to this page that despite seeming to be upstanding citizens in most other respects actually cheer for the Sox. Probably some of you dear readers too. So there you have it. Congratulations.

So what did you miss while your favorite baseball/football/rugby/formula one team was golfing/losing ugly/coming up short against South Africa/driving really slowly?

• Cancer rates may be declining in the US, says the American Cancer Society, but as the New York Times reports, rates of certain cancers are increasing. Why?


• The Times laments the loss of Cambridge Antibody Technology, the name anyway, in the wake of AstraZeneca's MedImmune integration.
  
• Kirin Brewery has settled on the terms of its offer for a stake in Japanese drug company Kyowa Hakko Kogyo. Kirin aims to take a nearly 28% stake in KHK in a deal valued at roughly $2.6 billion.
  
• Two days left to guess which big biotech will be the next pharma takeout target. Check out our poll in the upper-left hand corner of the blog.

While You Were at the Beer Festival

A friend of IN VIVO Blog reads his GBBF-approved magazine

Massive beer festivals and keeping up with the weekend's news don't necessarily mix, but damnit we'll do our best.

• Glass half-full ... The Boston Globe is reporting this morning that FoldRx, a biotech specializing in molecular chaperones that can return misfolded proteins to their correct shapes, will receive a serious chunk of change from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The $22 million grant will be paid out over five years, says the Globe (Our most recent feature on venture philanthropy can be found here.)
• Glass half-empty ... Cost cutting: not just for Big Pharma. Amgen isn't saying what the cuts will look like, but the big biotech said in a regulatory filing on Friday that hits to its ESA franchise will result in a fresh look at its cost structure.
• Through the Looking Glass ... we've ignored this blog-friendly story so far if only because we don't have much to add beyond "eeesh." But for a roundup of the Johnson & Johnson-sues-the-Red Cross kerfuffle, and the various guffaws and high-horsing around the web, see the never-subtle Pharma Marketing Blog.
• What's in your glass? Finally, some tasting notes from the Great British Beer Festival for any ale aficionados out there ...

As you can see from the picture above we spent some time camped out in front of the Caledonian and Sharps booths, mostly because these breweries rarely disappoint. The XPA and Deuchars IPA were outstanding as usual, and the mysterious Rebus 20 was also quite good. Sharps' Atlantic IPA was delicious and we also liked their Cornish Coaster. No surprises there.

What did surprise us a bit were the higher-than-the-pub prices for some beers at the festival (3 quid per pint was not uncommon), and the fact that we 'discovered' only a few new ales that were top-notch. (That said, we couldn't try all 450. Maybe next year.)

Can't wait to try again: Jennings Cocker Hoop from Marston's and Caledonian's XPA.

Give it a miss: A Fist Full of Hops from Falstaff and Bullmastiff South's Welsh Gold.

If you were at the festival or just have a favorite ale to tell us about, lets hear it in the comments...

While You Were Kicking the Habit ...

Not a big weekend for our particular brand of scuttlebutt, but here are a few tidbits of alliance- and health-care-oriented news that IN VIVO Blog picked up on over the weekend and in the wee hours of Monday morning ...

• You may have heard that a small and little-discussed film called "SiCKO" was released in the US ... we haven't seen it yet but will likely comment once we have. We know of at least one big fan!


• Late on Friday, Theravance said that GSK passed on its option to acquire 50% of the biotech's shares at $54.25. The option was a big part of the companies' 2004 deal that gave GSK the opportunity to cherry pick compounds from Theravance's pipeline (while simultaneously giving Theravance's shareholders a put option well north of the firm's IPO price). We wrote extensively about Theravance's strategy here.


• Novartis wades further into vaccines this morning with a broad alliance with the Austrian biotech Intercell. For €270 million in upfront equity (€150mm) and cash/option payments Novartis is securing options to more than 10 Intercell programs, from preclinical through Phase II. Novartis now owns 16.1% of Intercell.


• Finally, England's ban on smoking in public places took effect at 6am on Sunday, and we rejoiced. Now the UK-based members of our transatlantic blogging team can enjoy an ale at the pub without stinking like we've enjoyed an ale at the pub.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless ... ooh cheese!

Great news for rats everywhere--with some upside for humans as well.

NYU scientists have demonstrated the ability to erase a single memory from rat brains, while leaving other memories intact. The study, published this week in Nature Neuroscience, suggested that certain drugs can inhibit the process of transforming short-term memory to long-term memory, dubbed reconsolidation.

The upshot for psychiatry may be the greater understanding of memory processes and potential inroads to treating conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder.

may cause memory impairment!