Tuesday, March 20, 2007

AstraZeneca - "if it wasn't for bad luck they wouldn't have no luck at all"!



Poor AstraZeneca.

It's not going to be a good ACC meeting for them way down yonder in New Orleans.

What with METEOR and ARISE an' all.

The disappointment of AGI-1067 represents the fourth failure of a late-stage drug for AstraZeneca since the start of last year. Exanta, their blood-clot medicine, Galida, their diabetes drug, and Cerovive, an antistroke drug, were all abandoned last year.

Furthermore, patents on some of the company’s key products, such as Nexium, a stomach-acid drug, and Crestor, an anticholesterol agent, will expire in the next few years.

Shawn Manning, of Bridgewell Group, said that the failure of AGI-1067 would increase the pressure on AstraZeneca to buy new technology to bolster its pipeline.

“They need to bring in at least $1 billion to $1.5 billion in revenue by 2009 to replace products that are coming off patent,” he said. “If they can’t do it by buying in products, then they will have to consider large-scale mergers and acquisitions.”

More at The Times

Insider's view: are they "born under a bad sign" or making their own "real bad luck"?

Time for a few changes at the top, perhaps?

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