David Brennan

AZ CEO makes new case for drug partnerships

John Carroll — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:03:48 -0400

BioWorld turned in an interesting feature on David Brennan's speech at BioPartnering Europe, where the buzz was all focused on the global economic crisis and the likely impact it would have on biotech. For Brennan, the CEO of AstraZeneca, the crisis makes it even more important for cash-rich pharma companies like AstraZeneca to do more partnership deals.

"Strong companies don't sit around passively waiting for the storm to pass. For AstraZeneca, strategic partnering is priority," he told the group. He then listed the six reasons why:

1. Combining resources creates more value for both parties.

2. Payers and regulators are demanding more and more, and it takes two to deliver.

3. Partnerships add new skills to your company.

4. Partnerships force companies to focus on key disease areas.

5. Years of experience at partnering has improved the whole process for pharma and biotech companies alike.

6. Partnerships are having a bigger impact up the development and marketing chain.

- for more details, go to the BioWorld article

MedImmune’s Mott heads for the exit

John Carroll — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:35:02 -0400

David Mott, the CEO of MedImmune who led his company through a $15.6 billion buyout by AstraZeneca, is leaving the company a year after the deal closed. Mott says he's leaving for personal reasons and not because of any management disagreements. Following the AstraZeneca buyout, MedImmune was tapped to head the pharma giant's biologics work, integrating Cambridge Antibody Technology with the Maryland developer. Tony Zook, who heads AstraZeneca's North American operation, will take Mott's place until a successor is named.

The buyout didn't sit well with all the analysts several of whom said AstraZeneca paid too much. And one anonymous analyst told Thomson Financial that with Mott out of the picture AstraZeneca had lost a potentially strong successor to AstraZeneca CEO David Brennan.

- read the story from Thomson Financial

ALSO NOTED: Pfizer's Kindler can't quash mega-deal talk; FDA to review Pegintron;and much more...

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:59:50 -0400

> Some Pfizer investors are clamoring again for a big acquisition just days after CEO Jeff Kindler said he wouldn't play Let's Make a Deal. Mega-M&A is just too disruptive, Kindler said at last Wednesday's analyst confab. But a CreditSuisse analyst maintains that "a large scale deal may be the best option" for shoring up the company. Report

> The FDA has delayed an advisory board meeting to review the use of Pegintron for serious skin cancer. Report

> The FDA has approved Spectrum Pharmaceuticals' Levoleucovorin for injection after high-dose methotrexate therapy in patients with osteosarcoma. A supplemental NDA for colorectal cancer is planned for mid-year. Release

> The FDA has approved Auriga Laboratories' Liquadd Oral Solution 5 mg/5 mL for ADHD. Release

> Is it a pre-emptive strike? Late Friday Amgen added new warnings to the embattled anemia drugs Aranesp (Amgen) and Procrit (Johnson & Johnson). Report

> Is Pfizer eyeing Chinese outsourcing? Report

> What does it take to cut a CEO's compensation package by almost 20 percent? Ask David Brennan (photo), head honcho at AstraZeneca. Report

And Finally... Don't drink the water? Prescription drugs are in the water supply of more than two dozen cities, according to an investigation that's sure to catch a lot of attention over the next few days. Report

AZ touts biologics pipeline

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 06:59:58 -0500

At an R&D day for analysts and investors, AstraZeneca is filling in some of the details on its move to merge two recent biotech purchases--MedImmune and Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT). In October AstraZeneca announced it plans to combine the two biotechs into a new biologics company with $1.3 billion in revenue. Thanks to the merger, AstraZeneca says its biologics pipeline has doubled in size; the company says it will have three new drug candidates in pivotal trials by 2010, and it's targeting an average of six investigational new drug applications for submission per year. In particular, AstraZeneca is focusing on its antibody and vaccine discovery programs.

"Building a major international presence in the research, development and commercialization of biologics to complement our small molecule capabilities is key to our sustained success," said David Brennan (photo), AstraZeneca's CEO. "The consolidation of all our biologics capabilities from AstraZeneca, Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) and MedImmune into one unit immediately creates one of the world's largest biologics pipelines and establishes us as a leader in biotechnology among our pharmaceutical peers."

Recently, one investment bank said that it expected AstraZeneca to be the worst-performing pharma company in the upcoming years due to generic competition looming in the future. Perhaps the company's reorganized biotech capabilities can convince investors otherwise.

- see this release
- read the MarketWatch report

ALSO: Take a look at AstraZeneca's pipeline. Report

Related Articles:
Forget CAT: the name is MedImmune now. Report
AstraZeneca merges MedImmune, CAT. Report
CAT fetches $1.3B in AstraZeneca buyout. Report
AstraZeneca snares MedImmune in $15.6B buyout. Report

AstraZeneca cuts 7,600 jobs

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 06:59:58 -0400

Never willing to sit idle, AstraZeneca is whacking 7,600 workers off the payroll as it steps up its restructuring plans. That amounts to 11 percent of its work force. Determined to find $900 million in savings by 2010, CEO David Brennan says these cuts would hit the company's European sales and marketing operations along with R&D in a variety of countries around the globe. The cuts were announced with a second quarter earnings report that analysts regard as more evidence of a fundamentally strong company. It should be interesting to see how the other big pharma companies react to this news. Eager to earn Wall Street kudos, more may follow the same path.

- see this excerpt from AstraZeneca's quarterly report
- read the article from the International Herald Tribune

ALSO: AstraZeneca likes to talk about the expanded pipeline it gained by buying MedImmune, but some hefty restructuring costs have forced the pharma giant to cut its financial guidance. Report

Related Articles:
Big Pharma brings home the cash, slices payroll. Report
AstraZeneca announces restructuring and buyout. Report
AstraZeneca to continue ambitious deal-making. Report
AstraZeneca lays out road map for recovery. Report