NEWS OF THE WEEK
SHIRE ACQUIRES NEW RIVER PHARMACEUTICALS: Shire buys partner to have ADHD drug all to itself
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HE BRITISH drugmaker Shire is paying $2.6 billion to gain control over Vyvanse, a new drug for treating attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). By acquiring Radford, Pa.-based New River Pharmaceuticals, its development partner of two years, Shire believes it will gain a new flagship product with anticipated annual sales of $1 billion. Shire's revenues totaled $1.8 billion in 2006. Vyvanse, or lisdexamfetamine dimesylate, is a lysine-derivative of D-amphetamine that is patent protected until 2023. FDA has called the drug approvable and was scheduled to act on it by Feb. 24. If approved, Vyvanse will be poised to supplant Shire's Vyvanse ADHD product, Adderall, which had $864 million in 2006 sales but faces generic competition in 2009. "We have confidence in a positive FDA outcome," said Shire CEO Matthew Emmens in a Feb. 20 confer-
DETECTING NUCLEAR MATERIALS COUNTERTERRORISM: Two agencies
unite to spur academic research in breakthrough technologies
A cargo container is driven through an Advanced Spectroscopic Portal
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HE DEPARTMENT of Homeland Security's Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) is joining forces with NSF to reach out with $58 million to the academic community to foster high-risk, high-potential nuclear detection research that would leapfrog current detection technologies. This first-time collaboration between DNDO and NSF—dubbed the Academic Research Initiative—will eventually support up to 34 academic grants over a fiveyear period. Up to 23 grants are expected to be awarded by Sept. 30. "We are looking forward to some excellent proposals from the academic community in what is a vitally important area relative to protecting the nation from domestic nuclear terrorism," says Bruce Hamilton, a program director in NSF's Engineering Directorate. According to NSF spokesman Joshua WWW.CEN-0NLINE.ORG
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ence call with analysts. The acquisition is a logical move for Shire in the ADHD market, he added, giving the firm control over Vyvanse's future development and commercialization, as well as the economic benefit. Shire is paying a sizable premium to acquire New River and is funding the deal through debt and $800 million in equity financing. Besides Vyvanse, Shire gets two other products: a hydrocodone derivative in Phase II studies for treating pain and a triiodothyronine hormone in preclinical development for treating hypothyroidism. Shire also gains New River's Carrierwave technology for making what New River scientists call conditionally bioreversible derivatives. The technology, used to develop Vyvanse, involves covalently attaching an adjuvant to an active pharmaceutical ingredient, such as an amphetamine or opioid. The resulting pharmacologically inactive form is released in restricted amounts only at targeted sites in the body where enzymatic action reactivates the drug. Still, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration must weigh in on Vyvanse's classification as a controlled substance before Shire can launch it. As part of a $25 million cost-savings initiative, Shire Chief Financial Officer Angus Russell said that Shire will use spare capacity at its Owings Mills, Md., plant for a substantial portion of Vyvanse's final production. In July 2006, New River signed a long-term agreement with contract manufacturer Albany Molecular Research for production of the drug's active ingredient.—ANN THAYER
Chamot, the initiative is "unique in that DHS is providing the funding, but NSF is providing its expertise in pulling together panels for peer review of the proposals." Awards will be decided jointly by DNDO and NSF. DNDO spokeswoman Jenny Burke also points out a key goal of the program: the linking of research and education "to develop the human capital in nuclear and radiological detection" within academia. In short, the program aims to boost the number of academic researchers working in the nuclear sciences. The initiative will only support so-called frontier research. Proposals emphasizing incremental or evolutionary advances in well-established science will not be accepted. Instead, the program is seeking real breakthroughs in detection capabilities, Chamot explains. Examples of such breakthroughs could include the miniaturization of detection equipment or the development of detectors that exploit nontraditional methods of detecting particle interaction in a material. In a related matter, DHS's Science 8c Technology Directorate, which along with DNDO supports research and development, plans to spend $12 million to set up and support four additional university-based Centers of Excellence. One of these new centers would focus on explosives detection, mitigation, and response. Another center, in this post-Katrina era, would focus on natural disasters, coastal infrastructure, and emergency management. The directorate currently supports seven centers.—LOIS EMBER
FEBRUARY 26, 2007
