NEWS OF THE WEEK
to drugmaker’s virology portfolio
RISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB will acquire ZymoGenetics in a deal that values the company at $885 million. The acquisition is the latest in a series of targeted purchases designed to bolster BMS’s portfolio of biopharmaceuticals. The acquisition builds on an earlier collaboration between the companies around treating the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Last year, BMS licensed ZymoGenetics’ PEGylated interferon-λ, now in Phase II trials to treat HCV. The immunotherapy uses the same cell-signaling pathway as interferon-α, one of two drugs currently used to quell an HCV infection, but it is expected to have milder side effects. In a note to investors, Deutsche Bank stock analyst Barbara Ryan called the deal “another solid ‘string of pearls’ acquisition,” referring to BMS’s strategy of small acquisitions of technologies and drug candidates. Previous “pearls” have come in the form of both outright purchases—Adnexus, Kosan Biosciences, and Medarex, for example—and licensing deals for specific compounds
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REDUCING CARBON FROM COAL GREENHOUSE GASES: German partners
seek to mitigate CO2 emissions
T
WO GERMAN PROJECTS are taking steps
toward capturing and reusing carbon dioxide generated from coal-fired power plants. In one project, BASF, Linde, and RWE say they have reduced by 20% the solvent-related energy costs of capturing CO2 at RWE’s power station in Niederaussem, Germany. The advance, using new amine-based solvents from BASF, is crucial to climate-compatible coal power generation, the partners say. A second project, just formed by Bayer, RWE, Siemens, and 10 German academic partners, intends to use some of the CO2 captured in Niederaussem as a building block for chemical intermediates such as carbon monoxide and formic acid. The first project, which has a $113 million price tag, has been testing CO2 removal with the BASF solvents for more than a year. The partners plan to open demonstration plants by 2015 and the first commercial installation by 2020.
BMS
PHARMACEUTICALS: Purchase adds
of interest, such as its pact this spring with Allergan for a pain medication in Phase II trials. The deal “makes sense strategically and financially,” Leerink Swann stock analyst Seamus Fernandez says. He forecasts interferon-λ sales to reach $275 million in 2015 and $400 million the following year. Seattle-based ZymoGenetics also contributes one approved drug, the coagulation protein Recothrom, and an IL-21 protein in Phase II trials as a melanoma treatment. From a strategic standpoint, the purchase strengthens BMS’s virology portfolio. BMS is one of several companies trying to develop combinations of small-molecule antivirals in order to eliminate the need for interferon and ribavirin, the current standard of care in treating HCV (C&EN, May 3, page 12). But analysts say there’s still room for ZymoGenetics’ interferon-λ to treat the “null responders”—patients who fail to respond to the standard of care. New Phase III data released last week for Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ telaprevir, expected by most industry observers to be the first protease inhibitor for HCV to reach the market, highlighted the limitations of the new treatments. In the telaprevir trial, the virus was fully suppressed in just 29% of the null responders.—LISA JARVIS
Bob McIlvaine, president of the environmental consulting firm McIlvaine Co., points out that the claimed 20% energy cost reduction applies only to CO2 capture, in which the gas is absorbed into a solvent. It doesn’t include the energy required to compress and store the CO2. By his calculation, the solvent improvement reduces the 40% energy penalty of power plant carbon capture and storage to about 33%, which he says is still a “pretty good” accomplishment. Bayer will lead the second German project, called CO2-Reaction using Regenerative Energies & Catalytic Technologies, or CO2RRECT. It will have a $23 million budget, $14 million of which will come from the German government in grants over the next three years. The partners envision a system in which surplus electricity from solar cells and wind turbines is “stored” as hydrogen that is generated via water electrolysis technology supplied by Siemens. The hydrogen can then be reacted with CO2 to form building blocks for plastics and other chemicals. If CO2RRECT is successful, it will “make a valuable contribution to reducing CO2 in the energy and chemical industries,” says Helmut Mothes, senior vice president of Bayer Technology Services.—MARC REISCH
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
ZymoGenetics will add to BristolMyers Squibb’s internal HCV research.
RWE
BRISTOL-MYERS TO BUY ZYMOGENETICS
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SEPTEMBER 13, 2010
Pilot carbon capture plant (foreground) at RWE’s Niederaussem power station near Cologne.
