Brennan’s ouster at AstraZeneca sets stage for big changes in R&D

Posted under AstraZeneca, Blog, Chutes and Ladders, Companies, David Brennan, Diagnostics, Funding, generic competition, Leif Johansson, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, MedImmune, patents, Pharmaceuticals, R&D, Simon Lowth, Startups, Universities, Videos by john

The ongoing restructuring underway at AstraZeneca ($AZN) claimed one more employee today: The chief architect. 

CEO David Brennan has abruptly resigned--pushed out in a coup, according to the BBC--with plans to hand over the reins to CFO Simon Lowth as the pharma giant begins the hunt for a new chief. Leif Johansson will move in to the non-executive chairman's spot June 1, moving up the date on the planned switch out at the top to provide some stability for a company undergoing wrenching changes.

Brennan's departure marks the end of a 6-year stint plagued with R&D setbacks capped by layoffs and a showdown with a restive crowd of investors and analysts increasingly frustrated by the company's failure to execute an effective round of acquisitions and licensing deals. His resignation will take him out of the firing line for the annual meeting after the company reported a 44% plunge in first quarter profits, a predictable result of new generic competition for Seroquel.

Brennan's R&D strategy in anticipation of the patent cliff has been widely viewed as a complete bust, leaving the company with the weakest late-stage pipeline in Big Pharma. His $15 billion deal to acquire MedImmune has netted no new big products. And a string of clinical setbacks was capped recently by the failure of a Phase III depression program. In response, Brennan has been axing staffers, most recently offering plans to chop 2,200 research workers in a new round of layoffs. 

The focus now is on AstraZeneca's next steps on the deal-making side. The company has been scrambling to come up with a round of acquisitions, like its recently announced plan to buy Ardea for $1.26 billion. And Brennan said today that that strategy will continue as the company adds more such deals in the single-digit billion dollar range.

AstraZeneca has emerged as one of the most likely companies to play White Knight to Amylin ($AMLN), which has been fending off a reported buyout offer from Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY). The company's willingness to go in any disease direction to strike new deals will make it a possible bidder for a range of biotechs. And in this heated M&A environment, with a string of companies like Bayer already scouting significant buyouts, keeping AstraZeneca in the M&A game will likely help add to the premiums sellers can expect. 

- here's the press release
- get the BBC story

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AstraZeneca scouts new drug deals to silence a chorus of critics

Posted under Amylin pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca, Blog, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Bydureon, Companies, David Brennan, Diagnostics, Funding, M&A, Martin Mackay, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, MedImmune, Pharmaceuticals, Startups, Universities, Videos by john

The instant the news hit that Amylin had rebuffed a $3.5 billion buyout offer from Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY), analysts began to speculate that AstraZeneca might like to step in and make an offer the Amylin board couldn't refuse. The reasoning was simple: AstraZeneca ($AZN) CEO David Brennan needed to do something dramatic to demonstrate that he can strengthen a weak pipeline and add some significant revenue to the books. MedImmune, after all, hadn't performed to expectations. And Amylin's ($AMLN) Bydureon--for all the questions about its sales potential--could fit the bill. 

AstraZeneca's next step, probably being choreographed for some months, was to partner up with Amgen ($AMGN) on 5 antibody programs, paying a modest $50 million upfront. And now AstraZeneca R&D chief Martin Mackay insists that AstraZeneca is scouting the market for small acquisitions and more deals like the $1.2 billion rheumatoid arthritis package--$100 million upfront--it tied up with Rigel a couple of years ago. He also harkened back 5 years to a deal the company completed with BMS.

"I like the deals we've got with Bristol, with Rigel and with Amgen, and we're looking to do more of these kinds of deals," Mackay told Reuters' Ben Hirschler, who penned a story that included references to the litany of development woes at AstraZeneca. "It can involve smaller acquisitions ... but the notion of a mega-deal is not part of our strategy." Later in the story he added that he would be "disappointed" if the pharma giant hadn't struck more deals by the end of the year. The same message, no doubt, has been underscored with more vigor to the company's business development team.

The deal structure he was referring to looks a lot like the kind of pact that AstraZeneca struck with Targacept ($TRGT) for their depression drug program--a $1.24 billion deal structure. But no one wants to talk about that since the two companies recently dumped the therapy after it failed four out of four late-stage studies, highlighting how little late-stage success AZ has had in recent years. Given the lengthy timelines on early- and mid-phase drugs, though, a string of similar deals won't stop the criticism that AstraZeneca has faced from analysts. While Mackay insists that a mega deal solution is not on the table, he also wouldn't respond to Hirschler's query about any possible interest in either buying Amylin or stepping in to replace Eli Lilly's ($LLY) position in a marketing pact. 

That door might still be open.

- here's the story from Reuters

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AstraZeneca’s FluMist Quadrivalent to hit U.S. market

Posted under AstraZeneca, Blog, Companies, Diagnostics, FDA approval, FluMist Quadrivalent, Funding, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, MedImmune, Pharmaceuticals, Startups, Universities, Videos by John Carroll

The FDA has approved AstraZeneca's ($AZN) nasal FluMist Quadrivalent flu vaccine for use in people ages 2 to 49. Made at AstraZeneca's MedImmune unit, FluMist Quadrivalent contains two strains of influenza A and two strains of influenza B, and is the first to contain four strains of the influenza virus. Story
 

Icahn biotech whiz Denner jumps ship after 5 turbulent years

Posted under AstraZeneca, Biogen Idec, Blog, Carl Icahn, Companies, Diagnostics, Enzon Pharmaceuticals, Forest Laboratories, Funding, Genzyme, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, MedImmune, Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi, Startups, Universities, Videos by John Carroll

Carl Icahn's right hand man in the biotech sphere, Alex Denner, has turned in his walking papers. He has resigned from Icahn Enterprises, according to Bloomberg, after five years of boardroom coups and corporate restructurings, helping earning a fortune for his boss along the way. Icahn declined to comment about the exit, but Denner's departure is widely seen as another blow to the aging dealmaker, who recently lost his vice chairman.

Denner played a big role in Icahn's activist strategy for the biotech industry. He helped wrest control of Biogen Idec ($BIIB) from Jim Mullen--winning a seat on the Biogen board as part of Icahn's corporate coup--and played a big role in recruiting George Scangos to the job. He was part of the Icahn gang that tried to gain control of Genzyme, a move which ultimately led to Sanofi's ($SNY) $20 billion acquisition. Denner helped put the moves on MedImmune ahead of AstraZeneca's ($AZN) buyout. He was on the Forest Labs team, which has so far been stiff armed by management. He's also chairman of Enzon ($ENZN), which has been restructuring under his guidance, and sits on the board at Amylin.

Denner wouldn't tell Reuters exactly what he had planned, but he wouldn't surprise anyone by setting up his own hedge fund. After learning at the foot of the master how to profit from biotech, Denner may not be through with the drug development industry just yet. But he also may not be leaving with Icahn's blessing.

"I can't stand in their way," Icahn told Bloomberg about his top staffers earlier in the year. "But I want to know the employee is not going to spend half his time thinking about how he can start his own hedge fund."

- check out the Bloomberg report
- read the Reuters story

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