Europe

Euro watchdogs intensify antitrust probe

Tracy Staton — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:44:29 -0400

The big antitrust investigation going on in Europe is just getting bigger. Watchdogs have started questioning distribution companies, trade groups, trading companies, and others.

Some who received questionnaires said the queries zeroed in on drugmakers' activities vis-a-vis parallel trade. Antitrust investigators want to know whether pharma is trying to quash those deals, under which wholesalers or trading companies buy meds in markets where they're cheap and resell them in countries where they're more expensive. The questionnaires also asked about direct-to-pharmacy distribution deals like those recently inked by Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

- read the Wall Street Journal story

Reltaed Articles:
EU commissioner widens pharma probe
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EU commissioner widens pharma probe

Thu, 15 May 2008 06:59:55 -0400

Europe's competition commissioner is casting a wide net in her pharma-market antitrust probe. After questioning some 100 companies--including Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, and Sanofi-Aventis--investigators are now scrutinizing medical organizations and associations and government agencies.

At issue: Whether brand-name drugmakers are unfairly blocking generics makers from the market--and now, whether those patent fights are getting in the way of R&D. Generics don't get to market as quickly in Europe as in the U.S., and they make up only 42 percent of Euro pharma sales, compared with 63 percent in the United States.

- check out the item at PharmaGossip
- see the International Herald Tribune article

Lundbeck poaches CEO from Wyeth ranks

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:59:55 -0400

Wanted: CEO who can find a new "cash cow" to push a Danish drugmaker past impending patent expirations. Found: Ulf Wiinberg, lately of Wyeth, to take over Lundbeck. Soon to be ex-president of Wyeth's operations in Europe, the Middle East, African and Canada, Wiinberg also had been charged with strategic oversight of Wyeth's biopharma. Can Wiinberg deliver for Lundbeck? No doubt we'll soon see what he can do.

- read Lundbeck's release
- check out the brief at Money AM
- see the item at PharmaGossip

Falling dollar, falling drugmaker prices

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:59:57 -0400

Is the U.S. drug industry bargain-basement land right now? Analysts say that the low, low dollar means low, low prices for pharma companies. Rivals in Asia and the Eurozone could snap up drug companies just like they've bought up Manhattan condos.

Takeda Pharmaceutical agreed to pay $8.8 billion for Millennium Pharmaceuticals--a 15 percent discount, as the dollar has fallen 15 percent against then yen since early 2007. Roche bought Ventana Medical for $3.4 billion--and though the price was higher than what the Swiss drugmaker originally bid, it still represented a double-digit discount because the dollar has sunk against the euro. Other examples, according to Pharmalot: Eisai's buyout of MGI Pharma for $3.9 billion, Novartis' 77 percent-stake acquisition of Alcon for $39 billion, and so on.

In Vivo worries that foreign buyouts might be against the national interest, considering the intellectual property at risk. Some U.S. companies might be able to get Congress to shield them from unwanted foreign takeovers, the blog suggests. Bioterror research, anyone?

- check out the Pharmalot item
- see the coverage from In Vivo

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To DTC or not to DTC?

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 06:59:55 -0400

Europe is debating drug marketing--and the pharma industry is loudly protesting that it is not asking for the right to pursue DTC advertising. "[S]uch mass media would not be appropriate means for the industry to communicate information on specific prescription medicines to European citizens," says Bayer CEO Arthur Higgins (photo), who's also president of the Euro trade group.

But what drugmakers want to be able to do is "raise awareness"--a.k.a. advertise--various diseases. Then, when patients look up info on their own, on the Internet, they'd get access to info about meds. It's unclear whether this means that companies could set up websites about, say, depression, that are simply gateways to drug-marketing sites. But a couple of patient advocacy groups are up in arms about the drug marketing proposals, so the debate's not over yet.

- see the story at PharmaTimes

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