| GSK Expands Emerging Markets Reach With South Korean Investment The Burrill Report submits: By Michael Fitzhugh[[GSK]] will pay about $109 million (73.9 million pounds) to acquire a minority stake in South Korea's biggest over-the-counter drug company, Dong-A Pharmaceuticals. The new alliance is part of GSK's effort to grow its presence in emerging markets as Western markets become less profitable. The value of Korea's pharmaceutical market is projected to grow by about 10 percent per year through 2010, according to IMS Health. It is “a significant opportunity for GSK to extend its commercial footprint and build operational scale in this fast growing Asian market,” says Christophe Weber, GSK's senior vice president & regional director of Asia Pacific. Emerging market deals have become a crucial part of both GSK's global strategy and that of its rivals. Other top pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer (PFE), Sanofi-Aventis (SNY), and Abbott Labs (ABT) have all made deals in recent weeks to push deeper into these markets as growth in developed countries slows with the loss of key patents and they look to emerging markets for growth. GSK and Dong-A will co-promote selected products from each of their companies' pipelines in South Korea, sharing profits above pre-determined baselines on those drugs. Won-Bae Kim, Dong-A's president, says he expects the collaboration to “enable us to accelerate our transformation into a true global player taking advantage of GSK's excellent product pipeline as well as their global marketing/operational expertise and standards.” A new business unit will be created within Dong-A to manage the collaboration. The deal is similar in structure to arrangements GSK has pursued in other alliances, such as the company's deals with Dr. Reddy’s Labs (RDY) of India and Aspen Pharmacare (APNHF.PK) of South Africa.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
FDA Panel Rejects Weight-Loss Drug A federal advisory panel narrowly rejected Vivus's experimental weight-loss drug Qnexa on potential safety concerns. online.wsj.com |
FDA to Bolster Medical-Device Rules The FDA proposed shoring up medical-device approval rules that have been criticized as lax and inconsistent by consumer advocates and the agency itself. online.wsj.com |
Indonesia Fines Pfizer Indonesia's antitrust agency fined Pfizer, holding that it violated monopoly regulations on antihypertension products. online.wsj.com |
Analyzing Major Big Pharma Players Using Relative Valuation According to IMS Health, the global market for pharmaceuticals is expected to grow at an annual rate of 5 to 8 percent and reach $1.1 trillion by the year 2014. Unfortunately, outside of some mutual funds, I do not have any exposure to this sector in my personal account. In addition to scope for capital appreciation (based on sector growth), many of the big pharma firms also offer an attractive dividend. In the next few articles, I will attempt to determine the valuation and investment potential for the pharma companies currently present in my watch list and hopefully add the most attractive companies to my portfolio. This article presents the relative analysis results conducted for 6 major drug companies namely Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Merck & Co. (MRK), Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and Novartis (NVS). Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |