LONDON, Feb 26 (APM) - Pharmacyclics, which makes a fast-growing cancer drug and is valued at more than $15 billion, is exploring options including a sale, press reports suggest.
The California-based drugmaker has attracted interest from companies including Johnson & Johnson and Novartis, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing private information, Bloomberg is reporting.
At $17 billion, a takeover of Pharmacyclics could be the year’s largest drug industry deal so far, topping Pfizer’s buyout of injectable-medicine maker Hospira. (APMMA 41363).
California-based Pharmacyclics is already linked to J&J's Janssen Biotech through a manufacturing agreement for the blood cancer drug Imbruvica (ibrutinib).
Meanwhile, J&J is seeking to replenish its drugs portfolio as medicines such as hepatitis C treatment Olysio (simeprevir) and anticoagulant Xarelto (rivaroxaban) face new competition.
Novartis also has in-depth experience in blood cancers and pioneered Gleevec/Glivec (imatinib), one of the first targeted therapies for chronic myeloid leukaemia. A newer Novartis drug for the same type of leukaemia, Tasigna (nilotinib), generated $1.53 billion in sales in 2014.
Generic forms of Gleevec will be launched in the U.S. in February 2016, Novartis has said.
Pharmacyclics' Imbruvica last month got U.S. Food & Drug Administration clearance for a fourth indication, in Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia (APMMA 41279). It adds to existing indications in mantle cell lymphoma and two for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL).
Pharmacyclics said it wants to add at least one more indication every year for the treatment. Sales of Imbruvica are expected to reach $1 billion in the U.S. this year, Pharmacyclics has said.
In CLL, one of Imbruvica’s main uses, the indication was expanded last year for patients who have tried at least one other treatment, three months after Roche’s Gazyva (obinutuzumab) was approved for the disease.
In this indication, the first-in-class Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, is in direct competition with Gilead's Zydelig (idelalisib), an oral inhibitor of P13K delta, also a first in class therapy. (APMMA 40385)
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