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Biovitrum: A New Flavor of Spin-Off

 
• By Melanie Senior

Pharmacia spin-off Biovitrum, like other biotechs born out of Big Pharma, has found favor with investors seeking experienced management and advanced programs. But Biovitrum's size, cash flow, and independence appear to make it more attractive still.

After Pharmacia Corp. 's merger with Monsanto in December 1999 [See Deal], the enlarged group needed to cut R&D costs, which were running at a higher-than-average 20%. Figuring out how to do so was up to Mats Pettersson, who, as SVP and a member of the management committee at Pharmacia, had overseen the Monsanto merger. "It was clear that Pharmacia had too many research sites," he explains. The Stockholm-based metabolic disease center was one obvious place to cut, since work there was at an early stage, and few were aware that Pharmacia was doing small molecule work in Sweden.

Rather than moving the metabolic disease research programs to the US, Pettersson decided to keep the work going in Stockholm,...

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