Oxford, UK (PRWEB) June 24, 2009 — PharmaVentures Ltd, announced today that it provided the Helsinn Group with the transaction advisory support for the successful sale of Helsinn Chemicals Ireland Ltd to the Medinco C.F.M. Group, which was announced on Monday. Full details of this transaction can be found here.

Dr Fintan Walton, CEO, PharmaVentures commented, “PharmaVentures are delighted to have supported Helsinn in the strategic divestment of its pharmaceutical API manufacturing business. This success was achieved despite the current difficult economic environment and demonstrates why we are recognised as leaders in deal making. It also helps ensure an ongoing future for the Helsinn Chemicals Ireland business and its employees under the new ownership of the Medinco C.F.M. Group.”

Please contact:

Dr Fintan Walton, CEO PharmaVentures Ltd +44 (0) 1865 784 187

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Oxford, UK (PRWEB) June 4, 2009 – PharmaTelevision announced today that it is to broadcast an exclusive interview with Dan Zabrowski, Global Head, Pharma Partnering, Roche Pharmaceuticals Division and Joe McCracken, Vice President, Business Development, Genentech, on the Roche:Genentech integration, on June 4th 2009.

The interview on the business TV show “PharmaVentures Business Review” reveals the new structure and position for Genentech in the Roche organisation and how companies wishing to partner with Roche or Genentech can do so in the future. The interview also discusses broader issues such as the future position of Genentech and its role moving forwards.

Dr Fintan Walton, CEO of PharmaVentures, who also presents the PharmaTelevision shows and interviewed both Zabrowski and McCracken, said: “This exclusive interview provides insight into the operations of one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. We are delighted that Roche used PharmaTelevision to communicate its integration strategy and how its implementation is progressing”.

PharmaTelevision® (www.pharmatelevision.com) is the groundbreaking online TV channel for the pharmaceutical and biotech sector, offering insight and featured interviews with industry leaders every week. Since May 2006, PharmaTelevision has rapidly grown and the channel now boasts over 200 TV programmes with a truly global audience, 60% of whom are C-suite executives. In 2008, the channel launched a sleek new look and introduced two exciting TV programmes – the Financial Report and the Regional Report, which, together with our well-established TV programmes, help to give our viewers a complete overview of industry trends, analysis including deals, investments and strategic policies within the sector. In 2009, PharmaTelevision will be launching PTV News – a daily summary and analysis of the major news headlines, ensuring that, wherever in the world they are, our audience can stay truly informed.

PharmaTelevision is a media division of PharmaVentures Ltd (www.pharmaventures.com).

For further information please contact: Fiona Bishop, +44 (0) 1865 784 187 or e-mail fiona@pharmatelevision.com

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Oxford, UK- 24 April 2009 – PharmaVentures Ltd, announced today that it has been engaged by Merck & Co, Inc. to advise and assist in divesting its world class research centre, the IRBM, located near Rome, Italy. The engagement will utilise PharmaVentures’ pharmaceutical transactions experience in the healthcare and investment business sectors. The IRBM is an integrated, state-of-the-art small molecule and biological discovery centre. IRBM has an outstanding record of drug discovery including Isentress(R), the first approved HIV integrase inhibitor and winner of the Prix Galien USA 2008 award for the best pharmaceutical agent. The centre has received significant investment since 2000 and is staffed with exceptional, experienced pharmaceutical scientists.

Dr Fintan Walton, CEO, PharmaVentures commented, “This research centre is a rare opportunity for a pharmaceutical company or contract research organisation to expand its operations and gain access to one of the world’s foremost research centres.”

For press enquiries, please contact:

Dr Fintan Walton, CEO

PharmaVentures

fintan.walton@pharmaventures.com

+44 (0) 1865 784 187

For enquiries about this opportunity, please contact:

Kevin Bottomley

Senior Principal

PharmaVentures

kevin.bottomley@pharmaventures.com

+44 (0) 1865 784 185

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Merck & Co and Schering-Plough have announced that they are to merge in a deal worth US$41.1 B. It’s a deal that has been long speculated because of their existing marketing relationships over Zetia® and Vytorin® and the opportunity of potential cost savings. The combined company will generate sales of US$47 B. The deal will diversify Merck’s portfolio of drugs and double its late stage pipeline to 18 developments. Merck’s CEO, Richard Clark, will head the merged company with Merck shareholders owning a 68% stake. Schering-Plough generates 70% of its revenue outside of the US which will accelerate Merck’s international growth.

With consolidation in the air, Merck has done away with tradition and decided to go for a US$41.1 B mega-merger with Schering-Plough. Under the agreement, Schering-Plough shareholders will receive 0.5767 shares of Merck and US$10.50 in cash for each Schering-Plough share. The transaction offers a premium of 34% for Schering-Plough shareholders based on Friday’s closing price. The merger brings together the makers of Zetia (ezetimibe) and Vytorin (ezetimibe/simvastatin). Already both companies were cost-cutting amid the setbacks from the results of a study released early in 2008 that showed the combination drug was no better than low cost generic versions of Zocor® (simvastatin) alone and there was an increased risk of cancer; fourth quarter sales last year slumped by 26%. Merck CEO, Richard Clark, pointed out that the merger would result in cost savings of approximately US$3.5 B a year beyond 2011 in addition to the savings that will be undertaken as announced previously. The combined company will benefit from a formidable R&D pipeline, have a broad portfolio of drugs and will be able to expand into emerging markets. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

Kevin Bottomley, Senior Principal of PharmaVentures, says, “The merger is long overdue and makes sense for Merck. Over the next five years, Schering-Plough has a lower exposure to generics than Merck, which is facing a patent cliff and could lose US$9.6 B to patent expirations. Merck, historically, has not pursued the mega-merger strategy and has been increasingly reliant on internal research to fill its pipeline. Clearly, this has not worked and lower levels of productivity have not met the needs of the company to develop blockbuster drugs; hence resorting in the end to acquire Schering-Plough. With a decent late stage pipeline, Schering-Plough has done well following its merger with Organon, and the company is particularly strong in biologics. This is another area in which Merck will benefit after it revealed late last year that it intends to push into biologics and biosimilars.”

From Schering-Plough’s point of view it gets to increase its chances of getting its products to market and bolster its sales and marketing capabilities to promote these late stage products.

The enlarged Merck is now in a better position to compete with Pfizer-Wyeth, which merged earlier in 2009, by becoming a much more diversified company with the addition of Schering-Plough’s consumer healthcare and animal health divisions. More consolidation is expected in the industry and all eyes are on the next mega-merger.

Read the related article in PharmaDeals® Review : ‘Merck to Merge with Schering-Plough in a US$41.1 B deal’ PharmaDeals Review, published 9 March 2009.

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Oxford, UK (PRWEB) January 23, 2009 — If Pfizer and Wyeth merge to create a $60 billion company, will it be a good deal or a bad deal? Fintan Walton, PhD, CEO of PharmaVentures, says, ‘This is potentially a bad deal for both companies. By 2012, the merged company will have lost $25bn with products coming off-patent with the current pipeline only replenishing $2.5bn in that time’.

Dr Walton continues, ‘It will be a major distraction to the merged entity and will mean that the merged company will potentially lose the opportunity to buy up biotechnology companies and their pipelines – leaving their competitors to do so. So, post merger, the rich pickings would have gone elsewhere’.

On the positive side, any potential merger would allow Pfizer to gain access to new therapies, for instance to vaccines, and to share in the remaining years of Enbrel, which is co-marketed with Amgen. Pfizer have complementary Central Nervous System (CNS) portfolios, and so the combined company will have a strong CNS presence. Dr Walton says, ‘As a combined company, there would be 20 products in Phase III, which sounds impressive, but they will need to rationalise to make the business work’.

PharmaDeals Review will be reporting on any potential monopoly issues, although the PharmaVentures’ business analysts say there is no obvious bar to any merger going ahead.

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In today’s financial climate, the survival of smaller companies is often dependent on their ability to do deals successfully with larger pharmaceutical companies. The Royalty Rate Report 2009: A Comprehensive Assessment of Valuation in the Pharmaceutical Sector, the latest report from PharmaVentures, provides expert guidance on critical aspects of deal-making, including valuations and royalty rate calculations.

Oxford, UK November 5, 2008 — In the current financial climate, the availability of venture capital will simply dry up, particularly for start-up biotech companies and those desperate for additional funding. This leaves many vulnerable companies with a critical need for cash, and their key to survival in the short-term will be deal-making with larger pharmaceutical and biotech companies. The market is now reacting to this depleted cash availability and so the terms of licensing deals are turning back in favour of those cash-rich pharmaceutical companies.

“For biotechs, protecting cash flow is key to survival, which means that licensing terms have become more crucial than ever before”, claims Fintan Walton, CEO of PharmaVentures, a leading transactions firm. In fact, managing both financial as well as clinical risk will be vitally important according to the recently published report from PharmaVentures, The Royalty Rate Report 2009: A Comprehensive Assessment of Valuation in the Pharmaceutical Sector. “The adoption of the correct valuation models can enable companies to derive better value from their deal-making in these financially challenging times. The Report sets out to provide essential assessment through the most powerful methodologies available, selected case studies and PharmaVentures consultants’ experience in deal making advisory services.”

Nigel Borshell, Editor of the Report, says, “In these important times, the Report explodes some of the myths of valuations and royalty rates calculations, highlights what you should factor in to your own calculations and explains how best to generate useful royalty rate outcomes. It does this by providing key case histories, deal analysis, and opinion leader comment all relating to the quest for better more useable valuation data.” A significant part of the content has been formulated by leveraging PharmaVentures’ 16 years of experience in assisting pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide in all aspects of deal-making.

Topics covered in the Report include:

• Clear guidance on the best methodologies to use when calculating Valuations and Royalty Rates to assist with vital decision making
• Opinions and advice from leading industry deal makers on how to calculate Royalty Rates
• Contextual information – The report reviews the appropriate methodologies to use as part of the process to calculate Royalty Rates in-depth. It explores questions such as: “What do royalties mean in terms of value?” and “Where do royalties fit within the deal?”
• More case studies – PharmaVentures highlights the issues and pitfalls

PharmaVentures has previously published three successful reports on royalty rates in the pharmaceutical industry. “However, this time we conducted even more extensive surveys and the 2009 Edition represents a complete rewrite”, says Fintan Walton, “and, judging by the excellent response from companies worldwide, it will, in short time, become the industry standard reference on the topic”. The new Royalty Rate Report is published under PharmaVentures’ imprint, PharmaDeals®.

According to Fintan Walton: “This report complements PharmaVentures’ insight and expertise to the industry on these issues particularly through our advisory services and our pan media offerings, PharmaDeals and PharmaTelevision.”

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