Just (g)OUT

AstraZeneca have announced their purchase of Ardea Biosciences for around $1 bn. Definitely not comparable to the ~15 bn dollar acquistion of MedImmune in 2007. Not surprising is the move of AstraZeneca to any follower of Pharma industry. With such a weak late stage pipeline, AstraZeneca have been trumpeting their desire to strike deals, either licensing or acquisition. The recent collaboration with Amgen on the Immunoinflammatory area added some life to the pipeline of AZ. The collaboration with Amgen included a Phase III ready candidate, brodalumab (for psoriasis) and the rest were early stage assets. This time, the purchase of Ardea will bring another late stage asset, lesinurad (RDEA594) for gout. 

Interestingly, Takeda recently announced a similar deal (pretty close in the $ too) of buying URL Pharma for around 800 mn$. URL Pharma already markets Colcrys (colchicine) for treatment of gout. Takeda already had a drug for the treatment of gout, Uloric (febuxostat) through their partners Teijin Pharma.

Overall, good news for AZ this April. first with the EMA's CHMP recommending the approval of dapagliflozin for type 2 diabetes. Dapagliflozin team at AZ might have felt a bit of relief of heat under their collars by this recommendation since earlier in Jan 2012, the US FDA issued a Complete Response Letter asking AstraZeneca for additional clinical data to allow a better assessment of the benefit-risk profile for dapagliflozin. (FDA had pushed back the PDUFA data from October 28th, 2011, to January 28th, 2012). Secondly, the purchase of Ardea.

There is light at the end of the tunnel for AstraZeneca.

AstraZenca to cut 7500 jobs

AstraZeneca’s new restructuring initiatives announces recently would eliminate 7,300 jobs (2,200 in Research and Development (R&D), 1,350 in manufacturing and operations and 3,750 in sales and administration), bringing their total cuts over the past five years to nearly 30,000.

Excess capacity in certain R&D functions will be reduced, matching resources to AstraZeneca’s more focused R&D portfolio and as a results their Neuroscience-research laboratories in Sodertalje, Sweden and Montreal will be shut down. They will be replaced by a "virtual" neuroscience unit, by entering into collaborations, just like other big pharma companies, with academic institutions. These units will be made up of a small team of around 40 to 50 AstraZeneca scientists conducting discovery and development externally, through a network of some of the most innovative partners in academia and industry globally. The team will be based in major neuroscience hubs – Boston (US) and Cambridge (UK) – and work closely with innovative partners such as the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm (Sweden).

This move is expected to deliver an estimated $1.6 billion in annual benefits by the end of 2014, at an estimated total cost of $2.1 billion. AstraZeneca expects a dip in revenue with several of their drugs (including Seroquel and Nexium) loose patients in the coming years.

AstraZeneca continues to invest in R&D in the following therapy areas: cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, infection, oncology, neuroscience and respiratory & inflammation.

With a weak late stage pipeline (roughly 3-5 filings are expected in this year), AstraZeneca will try to in licence some mid/late stage asset to boost its pipeline.

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