Here are some Bayer plans. Sound more like a big partnership than a munch, but still interesting:
"hopes to sign a major alliance soon in protein therapies, to rival its $465 million genome-research pact last fall with Millennium Pharmaceuticals -- the largest drug discovery deal ever signed."
Any suggestions what they could be talking about? It would likely be a first or second tier company given the proposed size. Doesn't really make sense for the companies who already have a lot of cash like BGEN. A company with lots of IP and not enough cash makes more sense. Aside from the usual suspects, ICOS is a possibility - might explain its recent strength.
Here's the full story:
March 29, 1999
Bayer's biotech prescription
German drug giant seeks to boost size of Berkeley campus
Kristen Bole Business Times Staff Writer
The company that made its name in aspirin is aiming for the top tier in biotechnology.
With a new drug on the market, six others in the pipeline and research alliances on the horizon, Bayer Corp. is now aiming to double both its revenue and laboratory space at its Berkeley biotechnology campus. With a goal of nearly 30 percent annual revenue growth for the next few years, it hopes to quickly enter the league of local giants like Chiron and Genentech.
"Growth as a mission is not new in the biotechnology industry, but we're in a phase where growth is leading our strategy," said Wolf-Dieter Busse, who heads the Bayer division as senior vice president for biotechnology.
In the last seven years, Bayer's Berkeley division has grown into a $400 million-revenue biotech company, with 1,200 employees. It also has one major product on the market now, another expected within the next six months, and five others heading into clinical trials.
That places it sixth in the biotech arena. Now the company is looking to give the $1 billion biotech leaders like Genentech, Amgen and Chiron a wrestle for third place.
Busse's goal is to make the Berkeley facility both a major player in biotech research and development, and a full participant in gene-therapy and protein therapeutics. That should include a number of milestones in both science and infrastructure over the next year:
It hopes to sign a major alliance soon in protein therapies, to rival its $465 million genome-research pact last fall with Millennium Pharmaceuticals -- the largest drug discovery deal ever signed.
It is awaiting FDA approval this fall for its second-generation drug for hemophilia, made without human proteins, thus opening a $400 million sector with no competition.
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