Pfizer Inc is fortifying its key immunology and inflammation drug business, snapping up a small maker of skin disorder treatments for about US$5.2 billion, weeks after the US Department of the Treasury torpedoed Pfizer’s planned US$160 billion deal for Allergan PLC.
Pfizer’s agreement on Monday to acquire Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc, a money-losing developer of topical skin treatments, is the biggest US-based drugmaker’s latest move in a years-long struggle to accelerate growth.
Pfizer, known for Viagra and pneumonia vaccine Prevnar 13, had been counting on acquiring Dublin-based Allergan and moving its headquarters — on paper — from New York to Ireland to reduce its tax bill. However, the Treasury Department on April 5 issued new rules governing “tax-inversion” deals, removing the financial incentives for buying Allergan.
With Palo Alto, California-based Anacor, Pfizer gains an experimental eczema treatment that could be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration by January next year, plus US rights to topical toenail fungus treatment Kerydin and a portfolio of other drugs in early testing.
If approved, its topical eczema medicine, crisaborole, would be the first new medication type in 15 years for eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis.
Between 18 million and 25 million people in the US have the chronic inflammatory skin disorder, which causes inflammation and itching, often in skin folds and lasting for two weeks or more.
It is particularly common in infants and children.
Pfizer, which sells blockbuster Enbrel for plaque psoriasis and other immune disorders, said peak annual sales of crisaborole could reach or exceed US$2 billion.
Pfizer vaccines, oncology and consumer healthcare group president Albert Bourla called the buyout “attractive,” saying in a statement that there are currently few safe topical treatments for eczema.
Anacor posted only US$17.5 million in revenue in the first quarter, when it lost US$16.1 million. Anacor shares soared 55 percent, or US$35.50, to US$99.53, in afternoon trading on Monday. Pfizer shares rose US$0.16 to US$33.35.
Pfizer is to pay US$99.25 per Anacor share, 55 percent above its Friday closing price of US$64.03.
Anacor holds rights to Kerydin, which is marketed in the US by Sandoz, the generics division of Swiss drug giant Novartis AG. Pfizer said it could repurchase all Kerydin rights from Sandoz at the end of next year.
Boards of both companies have approved the deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)