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    Home > Medical News > Medical World News > AstraZeneca contacts Gilead to discuss merger possibilities

    AstraZeneca contacts Gilead to discuss merger possibilities

    • Last Update: 2020-06-17
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    , June 10 (UPI) -- AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) made preliminary contact with Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) last month to discuss the possibility of a merger, Bloomberg reportedAccording to people familiar with the matter, the contacts were informal, AstraZeneca did not offer any specific terms and the two companies have yet to enter into formal talksGilead currently has no plans to sell or merge with another big pharmaceutical company, but wants to focus on smaller acquisitions, according to people familiar with the matter cited by BloombergOn June 8, the reporter asked the two companies to verify the newsAstraZeneca (China) told reporters that it would not comment on market rumorsGilead responded that It would not comment on news that AstraZeneca was looking for GileadZhang Chao, director of MAHPharmaceutical
    s., pharmaceutical research and development and mergers and acquisitions expert, told reporters on June 8 that the merger of AstraZeneca and Gilead is in line with the interests of both sides, and that the "marriage" will have a honeymoon period after which the forecast is good for the latter stageAs of the close on June 5, AstraZeneca had a market capitalisation of $141.331 billion and Gilead had a market capitalisation of $96.273 billionIf it goes, it would be the biggest acquisition in the healthcare industry's history, surpassing the $74bn acquisition of Celgene Squibb by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2019A deal, if struck, would also create a superpharmaceutical giant with a market capitalisation of nearly $240 billionThe merger is in the interests of both parties
    AstraZeneca and Gilead have risen 10.20 per cent and 19.21 per cent respectively since the start of the year, making them the two best performers among major international pharmaceuticalAccording to public records, AstraZeneca is the UK's largest pharmaceutical company, which was merged in 1999 by former Swedish Astra and former British company Jellicon, with a product line covering neurology, breathing, digestion, cardiovascular/metabolic,tumor and anesthesia   AstraZeneca is one of five candidates selected by the U.S government to produce the new crown vaccine in the new vaccine development competition   Gilead Sciences was founded in 1987 and covers the fields of AIDS, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, cardiovascular diseases
    , cystic fibrosis, respiratory diseases and antifungal diseases   During the outbreak, Gilead's "god drug" Remdesivir gained notoriety for claiming to be a cure for new crown pneumonia   Mr Zhang said mergers and acquisitions had been the norm for multinational pharmaceutical groups, and AstraZeneca had a gene for cross-border mergers and acquisitions, the name of which was short for the post-merger spelling "It's costaintensive large-scale buy-to-let, getting more patented products and developing new drugs through mergers and acquisitions, to make up for the patent cliff dilemma facing the expiration of their own product patents." "
    in fact, AstraZeneca has faced a number of heavyweight "patent cliffs" in recent years The patents for Nexium, Rishuastatin (Crestor), Fomotro/Symbicort are due in 2014, 2016 and 2018, respectively According to AstraZeneca's 2019 results, sales of the three classics were down 12.9%, 10.8% and 2.6% year-on-year, respectively   AstraZeneca needs to look for innovative varieties to get rid of its reliance on classic products   In Zhang Chao's view, the development of new drugs is expensive, the success rate is very low, it is difficult to maintain the performance growth expectations In recent years, Gilead has made great gains in areas such as antiviral drugs, innovative drugs such as Sofibwe and a range of compound formulations that can cure hepatitis C, and Redsiwe, which treats new crown pneumonia, is scoming promising In a variety of factors to promote the two pharmaceutical companies choose strong and strong union, mutual empowerment, which is in line with the interests of both sides   Shenzhen Hongkang Pharmaceutical Technology Co , Ltd director Wei Wei said in an interview with reporters on June 8, the essence of the strong merger is the integration of groups and resources   "In today's market, competition between the strong and the strong consumes a lot of resources After the merger and acquisition, we can unify the goal to a certain extent and reduce the irrational consumption for vicious competition, so as to achieve the goal of saving and complementing each other's advantages AstraZeneca and Gilead are at the forefront of new drug development, and the acquisition is helping to maintain their position in the pharmaceutical industry , Mr Wei also pointed out that there will be a restructuring of people and management structures after mergers and acquisitions, which means that there will be some risks, such as management or cultural conflict scause of the reduction of corporate organizational efficiency, which will undoubtedly bring a lot of uncertainty and risk to the future development of the enterprise But Mr Wei believes the risk is less likely to occur   The future of the new crown research and development is uncertain
    astrazeneca and Gilead have taken the lead in the research and development competition for the new crown drug and the new crown vaccine, respectively   In an interview with the BBC on June 5, Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca's chief executive, said astrazeneca had started producing a vaccine to ensure it would be ready for use once clinical trials were successful   Earlier, AstraZeneca said it would provide at least 400 million doses of the new crown vaccine developed by Oxford University, with the first vaccine splanned to begin distribution in the UK and US in September or October In addition, AstraZeneca said it has signed a licensing agreement with serum institutes in India to supply 1 billion doses of vaccine to low- and middle-income countries, 400 million of which will be delivered by the end of 2020   It is important to note, however, that the new crown edge, azD1222 (formerly known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19), a collaboration between AstraZeneca and Oxford University, has not yet been developed   It comes after Oxford University's new crown vaccine was accused of failing animal trials William Haseltine, a former professor at Harvard Medical School and a top expert in genomics, noted that all of the monkeys who received the Oxford vaccine in the trial ended up infected with the new coronavirus, and that neutralizing antibodies produced by vaccinations did not have enough activity   Under pressure from the failure of animal testing, AstraZeneca and Oxford University are still launching Phase II and III clinical trials, with plans to launch them simultaneously in the UK and Brazil   Soriot admits that the distribution of the vaccine depends on the results of clinical trials conducted before August However, this clinical and production-going approach is risky, and once the vaccine proves to be ineffective, all the vaccines already produced will be wasted;   On the other side, Gilead's Redsewee's efficacy for the new crown pneumonia is also unknown   On June 1, Gilead disclosed the results of a Phase III clinical trial of SIMPLE in patients with moderate symptoms of new coronary pneumonia The study showed that Redsewe had some clinical improvement in the new coronary pneumonia However, there can be no direct equality between clinical improvement and cure, even if the disappearance of clinical symptoms does not mean a complete cure, patients may still be at risk of recurrence   So far, there is no definitive evidence that Redsewe can cure the new crown pneumonia   On May 1, the U.S Food Drug
    administration (FDA) granted Redsewe emergency use authorization (EUA) to treat critical lying patients with suspected or confirmed new coronary pneumonia Since then, Redsewe has been heavily used in the treatment of new crown pneumonia   The U.S Department of Health and Human Services has previously said Redsewey will run out by the end of June Gilead responded by increasing Redseve's production and plans to offer more than 500,000 courses of the drug by October and more than 1 million by December
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