The announcement last week that Bristol-Myers Squibb is teaming with AstraZeneca to purchase San Diego-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals for $5.3 billion could be a sign of things to come in the life sciences industry.
Amylin, which was founded in 1987 and became a publicly traded company in 1992, has become a leader in the development of medicines to treat diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease, exactly the type of products that larger companies are looking for to add to their drug inventories.
“Amylin’s innovative diabetes portfolio, talented people and state-of-the-art manufacturing facility complement our long-standing leadership in metabolics,” said Lamberto Andreotti, CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb.
For companies like Bristol-Myers Squibb, it is often a smart decision to buy companies like Amylin Pharmaceuticals that try to start from scratch and develop competing products.
Deals between large drug companies and biotech companies increased significantly last year, and the pace has picked up in 2012. Global merger and acquisition activity in the life sciences reached $159.7 billion in 2011, up 7.5 percent from the previous year.
“We are seeing not only Big Pharma, but Big Biotech moving to build its pipeline through strategic acquisitions and partnering deals," said Steven Burrill, who heads Burrill & Co., a financial services firm focused on the life sciences. "These companies are seeking not only to fill their pipelines, but also to find faster, more economical ways to discover and develop new therapies and move into diagnostics.”
San Diego companies have been the target of bigger drug companies in the past. Elan purchased Dura Pharmaceuticals for $1.8 billion in 2000. And Idec Pharmaceuticals merged with Biogen in 2003 in a $6.8 billion deal.
More recently, Roche Holding aggressively bid to purchase genetic testing company Illumina for $6.8 billion, but the deal was never completed.
The success of these and other deals are critical to the health of Americans and others worldwide. A recent survey from BIO found that 85 percent of consumers and 90 percent of industry executives are optimistic that science and technology will find cures to help patients suffering from serious diseases, such as cancer, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s and diabetes.
And, there’s a good chance many of those cures will come from San Diego companies either on their own or in partnership with big drug companies.
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