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Celltech-UCB: UK's Loss Could be Mid-Sized Pharma's Gain

 
• By Roger Longman

Celltech's shareholders should be delighted with the price of UCB's acquisition, since the company probably could not have otherwise secured the kind of alliance it wanted for its flagship product. But UK biotech has sustained a severe blow, losing its only truly liquid biotech. Meanwhile, in suggesting that late-stage deal prices may be reaching their upper limits, the deal sends a wake-up call to other mid-sized European pharma. It's time to leverage shareholder, cash and size differences with Big Pharma to recast Euro-focused primary-care operations into higher profit, albeit higher risk, specialist businesses.

Celltech's shareholders should be delighted with the price of UCB's acquisition, since the company probably could not have otherwise secured the kind of alliance it wanted for its flagship product. But UK biotech has sustained a severe blow, losing its only truly liquid biotech. Meanwhile, in suggesting that late-stage deal prices may be reaching their upper limits, the deal sends a wake-up call to other mid-sized European pharma. It's time to leverage shareholder, cash and size differences with Big Pharma to recast Euro-focused primary-care operations into higher profit, albeit higher risk, specialist businesses.

It has been the most obvious fact of dealmaking since the late 1990s: the prices for late-stage products have been rising steadily. UCB Celltech certainly profited from the inflation—winning...

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