Altana and Serono - ugly sisters with baggage?

Plenty of Big Pharma sutors are looking for a mate. Novartis, AZ, Pfizer and Merck have all intimated that if a "Cinderella" company looked right for a partnership they would be willing. But life is not that easy.

Instead of a beautiful Cinderella, Big Pharma finds that two possible mates on the market are Altana and Serono...........ugly sisters with baggage, some might say:

Altana, the German pharmaceutical and chemicals group had earmarked two new treatments to offset the fall in sales of stomach ulcer treatment Protium (Protonix in the US), its sole blockbuster which goes off patent in 2009.

But development of its chronic obstructive pulmonary drug (COPD) Daxas has faltered after disappointing trial results, and resulted in Pfizer terminating plans for co-marketing of the drug.
Altana had poured millions into developing Daxas and its asthma drug Alvesco but a regulatory setback has denied the latter revenue from the all-important US market. Sales of Alvesco are not expected to exceed E10 million this year.

Serono, Europe's largest biotech company, like Altana, has faltered in developing drugs and is largely reliant on its multiple sclerosis treatment Rebif, which last year accounted for almost half the company's sales.

Earlier this year Serono halted development of a late-stage psoriasis drug and stopped another trial for new skin cancer drugs - two treatments it hoped would offset its reliance on Rebif.

Insiders' view: marriages are still possible. But these two wallflowers might end propping each other up!

Source: Pharmafocus