No. 3985 December 13, 2019 line success and business development. “In the next two years, we need to see how the pipeline is delivering,” he said. Bourla has been outspoken that when it comes to business development, he doesn’t see a mega-merger on the hori- zon. Instead, he said he is looking to bring in mid-stage clinical development assets to complement the internal pipeline. It sounds like investors can expect the company to be active on the business development front within those guard- rails. “I want to double it,” he said of the pipeline, which includes 92 projects right now. “And, we are going to double it by bringing in a lot of innovation to comple- ment what we distribute.” The company is focusing business de- velopment on six core therapeutic areas Pfizer’s Bourla: “I Think We Forgot as well, but Bourla indicated the company will be actively building out those areas both through internal investment and What It Looks Like To Grow” external collaboration. “We’re going to be JESSICA MERRILL [email protected] active because Pfizer is a very big plane and it cannot fly with one engine,” he said. fizer Inc. CEO Albert Bourla took in July it will merge the Upjohn business Bourla highlighted Pfizer’s recent acqui- over the top leadership spot from with Mylan NV to form a new generic drug sition of the cancer specialist Array Bio- PIan Read a year ago, but has quickly company to be called Viatris GMBH. Pharma for $11.4bn as an example of the executed on big changes poised to make The resulting Pfizer will be significantly kinds of deals the company will be pursu- Pfizer significantly smaller and faster smaller, with a 2020 annual revenue base ing. “When I saw the royalties they are col- growing. The chief exec looked back at of around $40bn from a 2018 base of lecting from 10 different companies, I real- his first year of leadership, and the state of $53.65bn, but growing at about 6%. ized this is a company that has produced. the company, from the stage of the Forbes Bourla said he is confident the company Why don’t we get them?” Healthcare Summit in New York City. will maintain a 6% growth rate through While Pfizer is executing on business de- “I think we forgot what it looks like to 2025 at least because the company isn’t velopment, Bourla said another big prior- grow,” Bourla told attendees during a pre- facing big patent losses during that time- ity for him in the near-term is changing the sentation on 5 December. “Growth culture frame. Right now, Pfizer is cycling through culture at Pfizer, a common refrain among is a very different culture [versus] when the loss of the blockbuster Lyrica, which is the industry’s new big pharma leaders. you need to just control costs.” weighing on 2019 revenues. Bourla said he is striving to create a youth- Pfizer is being reshaped through the “We have a unique window of opportu- ful, patient-centric, risk-taking environment spinout of its consumer health care and nity to get it right,” Bourla said. That time- at Pfizer, so that the employees feel it is a Upjohn established products business, line is about six or seven years because af- “company that thinks big, that has courage.” balanced with small to mid-sized deals ter that, more patent losses will be coming. But he said he is only building on the to add to the innovative pharmaceuti- His primary goal, he said, is to sustain the groundwork laid by former CEO Read. cal pipeline. The company announced solid growth beyond 2027, relying on pipe- Published online 6 December 2019 FOR THE LATEST BUSINESS INSIGHT ON THE BIOPHARMA INDUSTRY VISIT: SCRIP.PHARMAINTELLIGENCE.INFORMA.COM Through The AI Maze ASH Meeting R&D Woes In CNS Pharma’s adventures in J&J gives chase to BMS/bluebird Sage suffers depression setback artifical intelligence (p10) in BCMA-targeting CAR-T (p14) while Biogen still needs to convince with aducanumab (p16 & 19) IN THIS ISSUE from the editor [email protected] For the last issue of the year, I’d like to highlight just Her work contributed to the development of the PARP two of the many inspiring people who are making a dif- inhibitor Rubraca, which was approved for ovarian can- ference to human health through drug development. cer in the US in 2016 and in the EU in 2018. Jane Osbourn OBE was announced last week as the Not content with saving the lives of women with ovar- winner of the 2019 Scrip Lifetime Achievement Award. ian cancer, Curtin decided that it was “wrong for me to Her career in antibody engineering has spanned aca- benefit from this financially,” and with her share of the demia and industry and contributed to the develop- royalties from the drug she set up the Curtin PARP (Pas- ment of Humira and Benlysta. In her moving accept- sionate About Realising your Potential) Fund, donating ance speech, Osbourn talked about how a sense of £865,000 to help disadvantaged people overcome bar- responsibility towards patients drove her and her team riers to employment or education. “I’m proud that this on, and also about the importance of team work, diver- research will change lives, and I have everything I need sity, risk taking and openness. But her best advice was in life,” she explained. “be generous” – with ideas, time and support for others. Both Curtin and Osbourn are shining examples in One person who has been incredibly generous is our industry, which has the great privilege of helping Nicola Curtin, a professor at Newcastle University, UK. humanity and making money in the process. 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ISSN 0143 7690. 2 | Scrip | December 13, 2019 © Informa UK Ltd 2019 SEASON’S GREETINGS Wishing our readers a joyful holiday season and all the best for 2020. The next issue will be on January 10, 2020. For online access please contact [email protected] exclusive online content inside: COVER / Pfizer’s Bourla: “I Think We Forgot What It Looks Interview: Double Delight For Like To Grow” ImmuPharma’s Dimitriou 4 Astellas To Pay $3bn For Gene Therapy Company Audentes KEVIN GROGAN [email protected] 4 Novartis Enters ‘Transformational’ Cloud Computing Pact With Amazon 5 Sanofi Bets Big On IO With Synthorx Buy 6 Neurocrine Adds Epilepsy Assets From Xenon 8 Lilly Taps Loxo Execs To Bring Back That Biotech Feeling 9 What Lies Beneath China’s Steep Price Cuts For New Drugs 10 Pharma Finds Its Way in AI ImmuPharma PLC CEO Dimitri Dimitriou had an excellent 14 J&J Quickly Advances BCMA-Targeting CAR-T day on 28 November as his daughter got married and the As JNJ-4528 Shows 100% Response UK biotech signed a deal for Lupuzor with the US’s Avion Pharmaceuticals LLC that has breathed new life into the prospects for the investigational lupus drug. 16 Biogen’s Big Day Arrives, But Aducanumab Results The pact will see Avion pay for a new Phase III trial up Don’t Answer Key Question to $25m for Lupuzor (forigerimod), ImmuPharma’s first-in class autophagy immunomodulator which has been on a 18 Early Assets Excite At Novartis R&D Day less than smooth development path. That path got particu- larly bumpy In April last year when late-stage data showed 19 Sage Still Sees Approval Path After Depression Drug Fails that while Lupuzor plus standard of care (SOC), such as In Phase III Trial steroids, anti-malarials and methotrexate, was more effec- tive than placebo plus SOC (52.5% versus 44.6%), the high 21 Acadia’s Nuplazid Shows Nearly Three-Fold Reduction response rate in the latter group meant the primary end- In Psychosis Relapse point of statistical significance was not reached. Dimitriou said it was important to point out that it was 22 Pipeline Watch probably the SOC effect rather than placebo that led to the higher than expected response rate and missing 23 More Top Level Pharma Exits In India As Cipla COO Departs statistical significance. He added that in hindsight, set- ting that endpoint and not targeting only patients in the active state of the disease was unfortunate “and while 23 Appointments we took a big hit, we knew that in the right patients, the drug worked.” Published online 6 December 2019 @PharmaScrip /scripintelligence To read the rest of this story go to: https://bit.ly/36fhjnh /scripintelligence /scripintelligence scrip.pharmaintelligence.informa.com December 13, 2019 | Scrip | 3 DEALS Astellas To Pay $3bn For Gene Therapy Company Audentes ANDREW MCCONAGHIE [email protected] stellas Pharma Inc.