Conatus Acquires Idun's Assets

The world's biggest drug company continues to revamp its portfolio around six core therapeutic areas: pain, oncology, inflammation, Alzheimer's disease, psychoses, and diabetes. As it divests assets to restructure its research and development pipeline, Pfizer Inc. has found the best buyers are intimately familiar with what they're getting. In late July, the Big Pharma revealed it sold its Idun Pharmaceuticals Inc. subsidiary to Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc., a start-up founded by the same executives who led Idun prior to its nearly $300 million acquisition by Pfizer in 2005. [See Deal][See Deal] It's at least the third time since 2008 that Pfizer has disposed of an acquired asset by selling it to a group with deep connections to the original owners, each time at fire-sale prices.

That Pfizer, which has been talking up its out-licensing activities, would adopt such a strategy makes a lot of sense. Working with a buyer who's familiar with the assets "makes...