Friday, May 04, 2007

AstraZeneca's Patterson defends MedImmune purchase

AstraZeneca's executive director of development, John Patterson stated that investors will have to wait until the end of 2010 to determine if the company was justified in offering $15.6 billion to buy MedImmune, the Financial Times reports.

"We've only got to produce one or two good products and [the acquisition] will pay for itself," Patterson commented, adding that AstraZeneca "expects a lot more" than just a couple of products to come out of the acquisition. The executive noted that some shareholders accepted the logic of the deal, although they were "not happy about the price." Nonetheless, he said that the transaction "gives us the ability in 2007 to get to where we were hoping to be in 2010."

Patterson stated that the drugmaker plans to continue to search for in-licensing opportunities to fortify its late-stage pipeline. The company also expects to speed up development for two of its mid-stage products within the next two years, the executive added.

No comments: