Swiss biopharma giant Novartis has been on a tear lately on the M&A front. It’s recent bid to acquire Alcon for $50 billion to boost its eye care franchise (encompassing everything from pharmaceuticals to contact lenses to OTC products) certainly seems in line with the wave of large deal activity within the pharmaceutical sector. However, it was not until I picked up The Economist (January 16th-22nd 2010) this week and reviewed an article entitled “Pills Get Smart: Potential Encapsulated” that I noticed another recent Novartis deal that completely flew under the radar. Despite the lack of attention this deal received, the technology associated with the deal appears to have extraordinarily broad potential through a nascent yet disruptive technology. (more…)
Archive for January, 2010
Novartis’ Licensing and Alliance Deal With Proteus Biomedical: A Solution To Translating Downstream Patient Demand Within The Healthcare Value Chain?
Monday, January 25th, 2010The Role of Talent Management in Managing Life Sciences Risk
Monday, January 18th, 2010Life science companies have been facing unprecedented pressures requiring them to become more in tune with the realities of their marketplaces and to take a more thoughtful approach to understanding and managing business risks. We know many of the issues driving risk – patent expiry, pricing competition from generics, increased regulatory scrutiny, rising costs, poor efficiency of internal business processes. The question becomes what to do about them.
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Life Sciences and Google Sidewiki
Monday, January 11th, 2010Google Sidewiki is a new technology, released by Google in September 2009 that allows users to read and post comments on virtually any website. This offers a direct line of communication between company and customer that has historically happened behind closed doors, if at all. In a regulated industry, such as the biotechnology, pharmaceutical or medical device industry, this poses financial and business risks…and potentially some rewards.
Active Alliance Management is Essential to Successful Collaborations in Biopharma
Monday, January 4th, 2010External collaboration models at biopharmaceutical companies run the gamut, ranging from maintaining all operations within a nearly complete vertical structure, to being just about completely virtual. Outsourcing yields a range of perceived outcomes; in many instances the vendor’s performance does not completely satisfy their client’s expectations.
