NEWS OF THE WEEK
P&G SELLS UNIT TO WARNER CHILCOTT PHARMACEUTICAL BUSINESS: Deal expands Irish drug firm’s specialty product lines in the U.S.
PROCTER & GAMBLE
P&G’s ulcerative colitis product, among others, is going to Warner Chilcott.
P
ROCTER & GAMBLE is selling its pharmaceuti-
cal business to Warner Chilcott, a former division of Warner-Lambert. The Irish specialty pharmaceutical company will pay $3.1 billion in cash to acquire a business that makes prescription products for ulcerative colitis, osteoporosis, and overactive bladder. It also will gain drug development capabilities, a product pipeline, and manufacturing facilities in Puerto Rico and Germany. At double the Irish firm’s current size, the P&G business transforms Warner Chilcott into a global pharmaceutical company, expands its presence in women’s health care, and adds gastroenterology products, CEO Roger M. Boissonneault says. For the 12 months ending on June 30, P&G’s pharmaceutical business had revenues of about $2.3 billion and net income of $540 million. Warner Chilcott’s sales are on track to total just less than $1 billion this year.
NITROUS OXIDE THREAT TO OZONE ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY: As halocarbons decline, N2O emerges as a chemical of concern
N
ITROUS OXIDE EMISSIONS are now the single
most important threat to the ozone layer, which protects Earth and its inhabitants from ultraviolet radiation, NOAA scientists report (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1176985). The chemistry of atmoMENACING GAS spheric N2O is well-estabAgriculture is the primary source of lished: It is stable in the lowN2O emissions worldwide est level of the atmosphere, the troposphere, where it has THOUSANDS OF METRIC TONS N2O EMISSIONS a lifetime of about 100 years Agricultural soils 8,005 and acts like a greenhouse Other agricultural activities 885 Manure management 728 gas. When N2O migrates up Fossil fuel combustion 703 to the stratosphere, it is conProduction of adipic & nitric acids 531 verted to NO, which reacts Biomass combustion 108 with O3 to produce NO2 and Other nonagricultural activities 60 O2. NO2 in turn reacts with O NOTE: Projected values for 2010. SOURCE: EPA to re-form NO. The new work uses this WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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Specialty pharmaceuticals—which range from niche products to costly therapies for chronic or rare conditions—is a relatively new but extremely fast-growing market, according to IMS Health. The consulting firm anticipates that double-digit growth will push the market above $160 billion by 2013. The divestiture allows P&G to focus on its personal care, beauty, and household product divisions. In 2006, P&G jettisoned its discovery-phase pharmaceutical R&D efforts in favor of in-licensing late-stage compounds, and in late 2008, the company said it wanted to exit the prescription-drug business outright. As such, the deal was expected, according to Citigroup analyst Wendy Nicholson. Although P&G’s prescription business has been a “drag in recent years, prior thereto it had been a nice contributor to P&G’s growth rate,” she says in a report to investors. P&G’s management itself has said it believes Warner Chilcott will be a better investor in the unit’s drug assets, brands, and capabilities because of its focus on pharmaceuticals. P&G, meanwhile, is putting its priority on its consumer health care businesses. The majority of the 2,300 employees in P&G’s pharmaceutical business are expected to move to Warner Chilcott. The welfare of these men and women, P&G CEO Robert A. McDonald says, “was a key consideration in the choice of a buyer.”—ANN THAYER
N2O chemistry to calculate nitrous oxide’s “ozonedepletion potential,” which compares the O3 destroyed per unit mass of N2O and per unit mass of CFCl3. The result shows that the ozone-depletion potential of N2O is comparable with that of several hydrochlorofluorocarbons, the industrial use of which is set to be phased out by 2030 in accordance with an international treaty, the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer. When the NOAA group weighted current atmospheric emissions by their respective ozone-depletion potentials, N2O emerged as the most critical ozonedepleting substance. “In the ozone-depletion story of the past few decades, the focus has been solely on chlorine and bromine compounds,” says Martyn Chipperfield, professor of atmospheric chemistry at the University of Leeds, in England. “This paper neatly demonstrates that we are now at a point where N2O/NOx is the biggest threat to the ozone layer.” Ironically, atmospheric chlorinated compounds reduce the ozone-depletion effects of N2O, which should therefore worsen as chlorine levels drop. Nitrous oxide in the atmosphere comes from both natural and anthropogenic sources, says A. R. Ravishankara, who led the NOAA group. About one-third of atmospheric N2O comes from human activities, in particular agriculture. Scientists estimate that anthropogenic sources of N2O are increasing at a rate of about 1% per year, Ravishankara says.—JYLLIAN KEMSLEY
AUGUST 31, 2009
