Is Pfizer Casting Attention on Shire?
Traders in the U.K. think Pfizer might make a play for Shire, a specialty drug maker best known for treatments of ADHD.
Shares of Shire, the U.K.’s third-largest drug maker, jumped almost 10% at one point in London trading today, Bloomberg reports. The enthusiasm for Shire subsided a bit as the day wore on and company shares were up 57 pence, or 6%, to 1,000 pence later. Over here, Shire’s ADRs were up $2.81, or about 5% to $60.23 in pre-market trading.
Since gorging on Warner-Lambert and Pharmacia, Pfizer has stuck to smaller deals to augment the company’s pipeline and portfolio of marketed medicines. But Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler is in the hot seat as shareholders fret he isn’t doing enough to remake Pfizer with just two or three years remaining on patent protection for cholesterol-blockbuster Lipitor. At current prices, Shire’s market cap is about $11 billion.
Besides Shire’s products, such as ADHD pills Adderall Vyvanse, Pfizer might also benefit from Shire’s approach to finding new drugs. The British company has emphasized development of drugs that were discovered elsewhere over basic research. Shire also targets specialists, a growing area of interest for Pfizer.
“A 1,300 pence speculative takeout price looks like a reasonable one, but it’s very difficult to say whether this is tangible merger and acquisition activity,” Jefferies analyst Robin Campbell told Bloomberg.
An unnamed trader told Dow Jones Newswires that Pfizer’s “strategic rationale in acquiring Shire seems questionable apart from their protected ADHD franchise and Human Genetics Therapies division.” Pfizer’s so immense that Shire’s sales and earnings wouldn’t make much of a dent in the pharmaceutical giant’s problems.
“We never comment on any sort of rumor,” a Shire spokeswoman told Bloomberg. “It just seems like a funny Friday.” No comment from Pfizer so far.
Update: Our pals at Deal Journal have their own take on Shire-Pfizer deal speculation.
Health Blog’s Howie Mandel Question: Deal or No Deal for Pfizer and Shire?
This Shire play by Pfizer may make more sense than is immediately apparent.. Shire acquired Vyvanse when it purchased start-up New River Pharmaceuticals for $2.6 billion last year which seemed a ridiculous amount at the time. What Shire also acquired, however, was New River’s “Carrierwave platform technology” which is the basis for Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine dimesylate), a therapeutically inactive prodrug of d-amphetamine. The technology basically covalently attaches amino acids (or other adjuvants) to target molecules to create new chemical entities (NCE) that can receive expedited FDA approval and other market benefits.
Prior to their acquisition New River was also working on a conceptually similar opioid prodrug with reduced potential for drug abuse, overdose toxicity, and drug tampering. They were also working on a conceptually similar thyroid replacement therapy for hypothyroidism. Imagine the potential market value of street safe opioid prodrug with NCE status. It’s also not too hard to imagine additional implications of this Carrierwave technology for Pfizer including extended and targeted drug delivery depending on rate-limited hydrolysis and/or the target site of activation of the inactive prodrug. Perhaps Pfizer’s interest isn’t so “questionable” afterall.
Detail ADHD meds? Just shoot me now.
If you could build a Statin with Carrierwave, this would get the drug into the bloodstream thought the bowel. Wondering if this would reduce potential liver side effects. Carrierwave molecules metabolize in the bloodstream after gut absorption. Someone might know something?
This is obviously sheer speculation, but all Pfizer would have to do in this case is create a NCE with atorvastatin utilizing Carrierwave technology (CT) to reset the IP clock and regain several decades of patent protection. If, as an arbitrary example, Pfizer covalently bound amino acid-like taurine to atorvastatin using CT this novel invention could have expedited FDA status as a NCE as well as possibly reduce the incidence of statin-induced myopathy via the beneficial effects of taurine.
http://www.ionchannels.org/showabstract.php?pmid=14992272
I don’t know if this would work, but it certainly sounds good. Besides, what other novel products does Pfizer have cooking in the kitchen?
I’m sure Pfizer would love to overpay for this company and then give their top management a big pay increase as a thankyou for a job well done.
Is anyone really working on Taurine-atorvastatin linkage?
I wish to get some details on CT technique. Request your help.
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