Teva Pharmaceutical Industries sees chances to grow in Latin America, including such major markets as Brazil and Mexico. Eyal Desheh, Teva’s CFO, said the company doesn’t have the right presence in Brazil right now, and it should be able to get bigger in Mexico. He made these comments Thursday at the 2010 Citi Investment Research Global Health Care Conference.

Without going into detail about specific countries, Desheh said there are also opportunities in Asia. He also said not to discount Europe. The generics giant has made moves there this year, beating out Pfizer and Actavis in its bid for Ratiopharm.

Despite the economic crisis in Europe, Teva sees no major impact on its business. The reported price cuts are targeted at innovative products, noted Desheh. He added that the same phenomenon was seen last year in the U.S., leading to a movement away from expensive innovative products to generics.

He also commented on the rising numbers of Form 483s, saying that the FDA is raising the bar of quality for everyone. Indeed, at least 43 drug factories have received government warnings in recent months for failing to correct manufacturing practices, a USA Today article notes. Teva received one for injectable propofol, and the article discusses the problems the company has faced with the product. Teva recalled propofol made in California after 41 patients developed post-operative fever and other symptoms the company said may indicate exposure to bacterial toxins, the article notes. And in December, the FDA issued a warning letter saying the company had not done proper bacterial testing.

Desheh said the FDA’s actions have been a great wake up call for the company, and the company is working “around the clock to fix everything.” He did point out, however, that the profitability of the product had been declining over the past couple of years.

Later in the day, the Wall Street Journal reported that Teva has told federal regulators that it will stop making propofol–something spokeswoman Denise Bradley confirmed in an emailed statement.

Source: FiercePharma

Popularity: 2% [?]

A little over a month after losing its bid for Germany’s Ratiopharm, Pfizer again is looking to expand its generic reach–this time in Brazil, the Dow Jones reports.

According to a report in the local paper Valor Economico, Pfizer is talks to buy the generic drugmaker and may announce a deal within weeks. Teuto apparently is also in talks with GlaxoSmithKline, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Blackstone Group, and various international investment funds, Dow Jones reports, citing the Brazilian paper. None of the companies would comment on the report.

Teuto is based in Goias state and in 2009 posted revenue of about $171 million. It sells products in a number of therapeutic classes, including antifungals, analgesics, anti-inflammatories and antibiotics.

The possible interest of Pfizer in acquiring the drugmaker comes as the company faces the end of patent protection for some of its key products within the Brazilian market. On Wednesday, the Brazilian Federal Appeals Court ordered an end to patent protection for Pfizer’s Viagra. The court ruled that patent protection within Brazil will end for the drug as of June 20, paving the way for generic versions of the drug to be manufactured by other companies for that market.

Pfizer joins Sanofi-Aventis in acquiring a generics company in the Brazilian market. Last year, Sanofi bought Medley, and the $660 million deal made the French drugmaker the biggest generics manufacturer in Latin America.

Source: FiercePharma

Popularity: 3% [?]

Has Pfizer turned its sights from Ratiopharm to Mylan? The company reportedly made quite a push for the German generics maker, and now that it’s lost that fight to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, analysts are thinking that U.S.-based Mylan could do just as well.

Investors have been bidding up Mylan options in recent days, betting that Pfizer will satisfy its generics urges with an offer for the company. Indeed, more than 32,000 calls changed hands last week, 15 times the four-week average; the stock itself rose as high as $24.

“What we’ve heard is there’s chatter about a potential takeover, but that’s every day with some of these healthcare companies,” Les Funtleyder, Miller Tabak analyst, tells Bloomberg. “[T]he thinking is that Pfizer may be interested in another generic company because [it was] one of the bidders [for Ratiopharm].”

But, as BNet Pharma points out, Mylan wouldn’t necessarily be a trouble-free way for Pfizer to beef up its generics presence. The company has had its share of trouble over the last 12 months, including a public battle with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the sudden departure of its CFO, and a controversy over President Heather Bresch’s academic credentials.

Source: FiercePharma

Popularity: 3% [?]

Losing Ratiopharm to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries may have made Pfizer a winner. That’s the theory advanced by Motley Fool, which says that to outbid Teva, Pfizer would have had to overpay. And overpaying, as anyone knows, is losing.

Here’s the rationale: Teva could pay about $5 billion for the German generics maker because of the similarities between their businesses. Because both companies are chiefly generics makers, there would be overlapping operations to cut; therefore, paying more up front would be offset by cost-cutting later on. Pfizer doesn’t have a big generics operation, so those synergies just wouldn’t happen.

Analysts agreed, saying that Pfizer’s bidding restraint was admirable. “To me it speaks a little bit to more sound capital allocation judgments that Pfizer might be making,” Morningstar’s Damien Conover tells Reuters. “For Pfizer to go ahead and let it go is a bit different than what we’ve seen in the past.”

That’s not to say that Pfizer isn’t still in the market for a generics deal. Plenty of people have predicted that it might go after Stada, another German generics maker. Motley Fool points out that Stada has a presence in developing countries, so it would kill two diversification birds with one stone. But another generics firm might do just as well. “We continue to see a move into generics as making sense for Pfizer and would not be surprised if the company pursued additional generic assets,” JP Morgan analyst Chris Schott writes to investors.

Source: FiercePharma

Popularity: 3% [?]

Teva Pharmaceutical is picking up ratiopharm for an enterprise value of €3.625 billion, or roughly $4.96 billion. The company is reportedly Germany’s second largest generics producer and the sixth largest generic drug firm worldwide.

Upon completion of the acquisition, expected by year-end, Teva says that it will realize synergies of at least $400 million within three years. The transaction will be earnings accretive within three quarters after closing, according to the firm.

“This transaction is perfectly aligned with our long-term strategy in which Europe is an important pillar and growth driver,” remarks Shlomo Yanai, Teva’s president and CEO. “ratiopharm will provide us with the ideal platform to strengthen our leadership position in key European markets, most notably in Germany, as well as rapidly growing generic markets such as Spain, Italy, and France.”

The acquisition will increase Teva’s sales from its European business from $3.3 billion in 2009 to joint pro forma sales of $5.2 billion. ratiopharm reported worldwide 2009 revenues of €1.6 billion, or approximately $2.19 billion. Its portfolio includes 500 molecules in over 10,000 presentation forms marketed in 26 countries. ratiopharm also has know-how in biosimilars, with a number of products in advanced stages of development.

The combined entity will have 40,000 employees worldwide, of which 18,000 will be based in Europe. The German headquarters site for the combined entity will be located in Ulm, ratiopharm’s current headquarters.

Source: GEN News

Popularity: 2% [?]

It’s coming down to the wire: Ratiopharm bids are due Thursday, and Reuters sources say Pfizer will come to the party early. The world’s largest drugmaker is planning to submit its final bid for the company today, they say.

The Merckle family put Ratiopharm up for sale to raise money to pay down debts. The company has a couple of big inducements: Its solid position in Germany, Europe’s largest pharma market, and its role as a generics maker at a time when many top drugmakers are looking to diversify into that market.

So, the company has attracted quite a lot of interest; the bidders that remain include Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the world’s largest generics maker, and Actavis, the generics firm based in Iceland that reportedly could take Ratiopharm public. Word is that Actavis’ offer is the largest now on the table at about 3 billion euros ($4.1 billion); sources have also said the winning bid could come in as high as $4.4 billion.

Pfizer reportedly has pledged to plow lots of money into growing Ratiopharm, making it the flagship of its new established products unit. However, it may also look at Stada as a “consolation prize” if it loses out on Ratiopharm, Reuters reports. And some see Stada as a better fit for the pharma giant. “It would make a lot of sense for Pfizer to look at [Stada] and, in fact, it is probably a more attractive fit because it also has some emerging market businesses which Ratiopharm doesn’t,” Reuters quotes one banker as saying.

Still, one can expect some drama over the next two days. Whatever the promises, whatever the bids, we’re likely to get news of a winner soon. The waiting is almost over.

Source: FiercePharma

Popularity: 2% [?]

Are low interest rates prompting the big interest in Ratiopharm? That’s one explanation analysts have hit on in trying to explain Pfizer’s newfound zeal at the prospect of buying the German generics maker–and Teva’s, too. “[Cash] is making 0.5 percent interest in the bank,” says Ronny Gal, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein. “Why not buy generics?”

The pharma world is closely watching the Ratiopharm auction, reported to be narrowed to three bidders: Pfizer, Teva and Iceland’s Actavis. Analysts and others have been advancing various rationales for the sudden popularity of Ratiopharm, the second-largest generics company in Germany.

Pfizer might want it so that it can funnel its soon-to-be-off-patent drugs like Lipitor into Ratiopharm’s global generics network. Teva might be enthused because of its goal to be among the top three generics makers in every country.  Right now, it’s in the top three in every European country–except Germany. Maybe Pfizer is trying to “stick it to Teva,” making sure that the Israeli generics giant doesn’t get a bargain price.

Meanwhile, talk is already turning to which generics company is likely to be snapped up next, the New York Times reports. Might one of the losing Ratiopharm bidders try to buy out Stada, third in line for the German generics crown?

Source: FiercePharma

Popularity: 3% [?]

Pfizer is pushing hard for a Ratiopharm buy, with top execs traveling to Germany over the weekend to press their case. Some news reports say the drugmaker even boosted its offer for the German generics maker. Either way, CEO Jeff Kindler led his executive group in presenting an acquisition proposal at Ratiopharm’s Ulm HQ.

Pfizer is said to be bidding as much as $4.08 billion for the generics maker, which has been on the block now for several months. Pfizer is competing with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Iceland’s Actavis Group for the buy. Like its Big Pharma rivals, Pfizer is trying to build a bigger generics business to capture its share of that fast-growing market. But why would Ratiopharm choose Pfizer? That’s the question Kindler & Co. were trying to answer in Ulm.

In short, Ratiopharm would get to expand exponentially because it would have access to Pfizer’s enormous sales network and, of course, the multinational company’s financial resources. The acquisition plan would put Ratiopharm in charge of Pfizer’s new Established Products (a.k.a. “generics) unit, Bloomberg reports.  Plus, Pfizer management pledged to invest heavily in Ratiopharm’s growth, with plans to extend the company’s European generics business and boost production capacity.

Source: FiercePharma

Popularity: 2% [?]

And then there were two: Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Actavis Group are said to be the last two bidders standing for a final round in the battle for German generics maker Ratiopharm. Sources tell Bloomberg that private-equity group EQT–which had been working with ex-Ratiopharm chief Claudio Albrecht on a bid–is no longer in the running. The bid ranged between 2.5 billion and 3 billion euros, or $3.4 billion to $4.1 billion.

The Merckle family is selling Ratiopharm to raise cash for repaying debt. As Bloomberg points out, the sale is set to be the biggest generic company buyout since Teva bought Barr Pharmaceuticals for $7.4 billion in 2008.

The bidding for Ratiopharm had reportedly attracted interest from some of the biggest names in pharma, including Sanofi-Aventis and Pfizer, not to mention other private equity firms besides EQT. Now that the bidders have been whittled down to two, sources are expecting Ratiopharm to pick a buyer as early as next month.

Source: FiercePharma

Popularity: 3% [?]

Generic maker Teva Pharmaceutical posted higher quarterly results that included stronger sales of its branded multiple sclerosis treatment Copaxone.

The Israeli company will save “hundreds of millions of dollars” starting later this year after it ends royalty payments of 25% on U.S. sales of Copaxone that it has been making to Sanofi-Aventis, Teva’s CFO told Reuters. Sales of Copaxone, the top-selling MS therapy, rose 25% to $747 million in the quarter and to $2.8 billion for the year. (Generics remain its chief business but about 30% of Teva’s product mix is from branded drugs.)

The company reported a net profit of $379 million, or 42 cents a share, compared with a loss of $694 million, or 88 cents a share, a year earlier. Sales rose 33% to $3.8 billion.

The takeover of Barr, which it acquired in 2008 for about $7.5 billion, helped boost Teva’s sales total and the company remains on the acquisition prowl, especially outside the U.S. Teva is bidding for German generic maker Ratiopharm, competing with Pfizer, Swedish private equity firm EQT and Iceland’s Actavis.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Popularity: 2% [?]