To all, Stressgen mentioned in Forbes.com article concerning Roche making deals "with a number of hot companies":
forbes.com
Roche Goes For Early Stage Biotechs
Matthew Herper, 09.24.02, 11:30 AM ET
NEW YORK - Monday, Roche, the Basel, Switzerland-based drug giant, agreed to pay as much as $220 million in milestone payments to get a new cancer drug. The experimental medicine, developed by a small, Hayward, Calif.-based pharmaceutical company called Kosan Biosciences, is still in the earliest stages of human testing.
While other pharmaceutical companies have paid large amounts of cash for biotech drugs that had nearly completed human testing, Roche (otc: RHHBY - news - people ) has been sticking mostly to those that are in the earliest (phase I) or middle (phase II) stages of clinical trials. Of the eight deals Roche has done this year, only one involves a drug that has reached phase III. That deal involves an osteoporosis drug Roche invented that it is co-promoting with GlaxoSmithKline (nyse: GSK - news - people ).
"It so happens that this year, the compounds that represent the kind of novel approach to medicine that we want to develop happen to be in phase I or phase II," says Dennis Burns, the head of global business development at Hoffman-La Roche, Roche's U.S.-based drug division.
This approach, however, comes with its own risks. Generally speaking, the more a drug has been tested in humans, the more likely it is that it will actually reach the market. If past experience is a guide, most of the new products Roche has licensed may fail to prove both safe and effective in humans.
"Do we anticipate doing deals in phase III and later? Yes, we do," says Burns. "But with an opportunity like Kosan (nasdaq: KOSN - news - people ), we don't think it would be wise to wait if they're ready to partner."
That has allowed Roche to make deals with a number of hot companies focusing on basic science, including Isotechnika, a Canadian firm with new ideas about making drugs to prevent rejection during organ transplants, and Memory Pharmaceuticals, the brain-disease company founded by Nobel laureate Eric Kandel (See: "Viagra For The Brain.") Here are some of Roche's investments:
Roche Buys Early Drugs With Lots of Risk
Company Research Stage Purpose Of Drug
ICN Pharmaceuticals
Pre-Clinical (no
human testing)
Helps treat hepatitis C
Vernalis
Pre-Clinical
Treats obesity
Medivir
Pre-Clinical
Treats HIV
Memory Pharmaceuticals
Pre-Clinical
Slows or reverses
Alzheimer's disease.
Gryphon
Phase I (human
safety tests)
Treats anemia associated
with chemotherapy.
Vernalis
Phase I
Treats depression and
anxiety
Isotechnika
Phase II (early human
efficacy tests)
Prevents rejection of
transplanted organs
StressGen
Phase II
Human papilloma virus (linked
to cervical cancer)
GlaxoSmithKline
Phase III (final human
testing)
Osteoporosis (co-promotion
of Roche drug)
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