Goldmans Sachs news from FierceBiotech

As the battle for Biovail continues, current CEO William Wells emphasized the company's focus on CNS drug development at Goldman Sachs' annual healthcare conference. Biovail is investing $600 million Read more...

Genentech's Susan Desmond-Hellmann, president of product development, outlined the biotech giant's development strategy to a group at the Goldman Sachs healthcare conference. In addition to testing Read more...

Just a week after gaining regulatory approval for Lexiscan (regadenoson), an injection that increases Read more...

Goldman Sachs and Invesco Perpetual have signed on as new investors in Circassia, a UK biotech exploring ways to control immune responses. They helped put up $21.8 million in Circassia's second round Read more...

> Sanofi-Aventis has set up a small executive committee to set strategy, allocate resources and oversee company management, according to anonymous sources who talked to APM Europe. The idea is to Read more...

Biotech powerhouse Biogen Idec has brought in some of Wall Streets top dealmakers to explore a possible sale of the company, which would fetch well over $20 billion. In fact, says Biogen Idec, the Read more...

AstraZeneca is stepping up its deal-making efforts with a pact to acquire Verus Pharmaceuticals' Read more...

> Symphony Capital Partners will provide $50 million to Alexza Pharmaceuticals for the development of AZ-002 and AZ-004, both of which are in Phase II trials. Release

> Shanghai-based Cathay Industrial Biotech has closed a $52 million second round of financing. Investors include Goldman Sachs, Gramineae Holdings Company Limited, GM Investment Company Limited and New Horizon Evergreen Investment. …

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Germany's Merck KGaA is buying the Bertarelli family's 64.5 percent interest in Switzerland's Serono. The $13.3 billion deal gives the family a 20 percent premium over yesterday's stock price. Serono also announced that its oral cladribine for multiple sclerosis had been fast tracked by the FDA. The family had long signaled its interest in finding a buyer for its stake in the biotech company, but recently had appeared to back off that strategy after failing to put a deal together. Goldman …

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Germany-based Altana is selling its pharmaceutical business to Denmark's Nycomed for €4.5 billion. Last year Altana hired Goldman Sachs to find a buyer. The company said it would sell the unit due to slow business, high development costs and an inability to compete in the worldwide pharmaceutical market. Altana "has been under pressure ever since mid-2005, when...Pfizer terminated a cooperation to jointly develop respiratory drug Daxas, which Altana hopes will replace sales of its …

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