Also of interest that none of the buyers were their corporate partners, which would have been seen as the logical buyers.... 2. Millennium/JNJ 3. OSI/Roche/DNA 4. Plexxikon/Roche/DNA
Plexxikon in fact partnered the US with Genentech just last month.
Daiichi Sankyo Bolsters Pipe with $935M Plexxikon Buy
In the latest acquisition of a U.S. biotech with promising oncology offerings by a Japanese company, Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, bought Plexxikon Inc., of Berkeley, Calif., and its promising melanoma drug PLX4032, for $805 million up front and near-term milestones of $130 million linked to approval of PLX4032.
In recent years, Japanese drugmakers have made a series of major U.S. oncology buys, including Eisai Co.'s $205 million September 2006 purchase of Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s three-drug cancer portfolio, a $325 million buyout of Morphotek in March 2007 and, earlier this year, $200 million in research funding to start-up H3 Biomedicine; Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.'s $8.8 billion purchase of Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. in April 2008; and Astellas Pharma Inc.'s $4 billion acquisition of OSI in May 2010 and several deals leading up to it.
The pattern is not a coincidence, Plexxikon CEO K. Peter Hirth told BioWorld Today, but rather how Japanese companies must compete because of a shortage of biotech innovation in Japan.
"It's particularly true in oncology," Hirth said. "The innovation gap in Japanese pharma in the last 10 years is just mind boggling. There is not enough innovation happening in Japan by itself. They have to buy it. Biotech did not take off in Japan. It has been a big challenge for the Japanese."
Other major Japanese pharma firms, including Eisai, Takeda and Astellas, have preceded Daiichi Sankyo with the "buy American" oncology strategy.
Eisai in September 2006 purchased a three-drug cancer portfolio – Ontak (denileukin diftitox), for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma; Targretin (bexarotene) gel and capsules, also for CTCL; and Panretin (alitretinoin) gel for Kaposi's sarcoma, an AIDS-related skin cancer – from Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, for $205 million plus royalties. Eisai next acquired Morphotek, Inc., of Exton, Pa., in March 2007 in a $325 million buyout. One of a few firms at the time that could make fully human monoclonal antibodies in cell culture, Morphotek had a pair of clinical-stage drug candidates, MORAb 003, in Phase I/II trials for ovarian cancer, and MORAb 009, in Phase I trials for pancreatic cancer. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 11, 2006, and March 23, 2007.)
In January of this year, Eisai Inc., of Woodcliff Lake, N.J., the U.S. pharmaceutical operation of Tokyo-based Eisai Co. pledged as much as $200 million in research funding to start-up H3 Biomedicine, of Cambridge, Mass., which hopes to develop oncology treatments genetically tailored to patients' cancers. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 31, 2011.)
Takeda, of Osaka, acquired Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., and its lucrative Velcade multiple myeloma product in April 2008 for $8.8 billion, renaming the company Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Co. (See BioWorld Today, April 11, 2008.)
Astellas, of Tokyo, bought OSI, of Melville, N.Y., for $4 billion in May 2010, boosting its oncology franchise and adding OSI's blockbuster cancer drug Tarceva (erlotinib) as well as a U.S. sales force, a pipeline of small molecules and discovery capabilities. (See BioWorld Today, May 18, 2010.)
A series of smaller deals led up to the OSI acquisition. In December 2007 Astellas bought Agensys Inc., of Santa Monica, Calif., and a pipeline of early clinical-stage anticancer antibodies for $537 million; licensed prostate cancer drug MDV3100 in a $765 million deal with Medivation Inc., of San Francisco, in October 2009; and in December 2009 got acute myeloid leukemia drug AC220 in a potential $390 million deal with Ambit Biosciences Corp., of San Diego.
If U.S. oncology biotechs have attracted attention from Japanese companies, so too, have selective kinase inhibitors been in the spotlight of late. (See BioWorld Insight, Feb. 28, 2011.)
Gilead Sciences Inc.'s recent buyout of Calistoga Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $375 million in cash and up to $225 million in milestones for rights to PI3K delta isoform CAL-101 underscores the enthusiasm for small-molecule kinase inhibition. A week earlier AVEO Pharmaceuticals Inc. signed a potential $1 billion-plus partnership for tivozanib, a Phase III-stage kinase inhibitor targeting VEGFR 1, 2 and 3. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 17, 2011, and Feb. 23, 2011.)
Kinase inhibitors have produced blockbusters like Gleevec (imatinib, Novartis AG) and near-blockbusters like Nexavar (sorafenib, Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Bayer AG) and Sutent (sunitinib, Pfizer Inc.).
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