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PHARMACEUTICALS

Sweden’s industrial output soars: report

Sweden's industrial output rose by 3.6 percent in January from the December level, pulled by the pharmaceutical and textile industries, Statistics Sweden (Statistiska Centralbyrån, SCB) said on Friday, also revising its 2011 numbers due to a calculation error.

Year-on-year, the Scandinavian country’s industrial production rose 2.1 percent, according to preliminary and seasonally adjusted data from the national statistics agency.

Production in most sectors showed positive development, but the overall rise was especially due to a 28.8-percent rise in pharmaceuticals production in January compared to December, while output in this sector was up 14.5 percent year-on-year.

The textile industry also did its part, raising output by 10.6 percent compared to December and 6.1 percent compared to January 2011.

Statistics Sweden meanwhile announced that it was revising its figures for all months in 2011 “due to an error in the calculations for … (the) electrical equipment industry.”

For the December industrial output, this entailed a downward revision of 0.2 points to a decrease of 0.2 percent compared to November, while the year-on-year number slumped into the red as it was cut by a full 2.4 points to a decrease of 0.4 percent.

The revisions for the other months in 2011 would be published along with the February industrial output figures, Statistics Sweden said.

The changed industrial output figures would also likely affect the calculations of Swedish economic growth last year, it said.

While the gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 6.4 percent, year-on-year, in the first quarter last year is likely to remain unchanged, the second quarter’s reported 5.3-percent growth was likely to revised down by 0.2 points, the statistics agency said, adding that the impact on GDP figures in the third and fourth quarters was still unclear.

Revised estimates for all 2011 quarters will be published along with the

first quarter figures this year on May 30, it said.

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PHARMACEUTICALS

Swiss pharma giant Novartis to splash nine billion euros on US firm

Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis announced over the weekend it would dish out $9.7 billion (8.8 billion euros) to acquire US firm Medicines Company, in a move aimed at boosting its cardiovascular treatment portfolio.

Swiss pharma giant Novartis to splash nine billion euros on US firm
Photo: AFP

Novartis said Sunday it had agreed to pay $85 per Medicines Co. share, which was 41 percent over the US company's closing price on Friday. 

The move will mark the latest in a line of acquisitions aimed at enhancing the Swiss company's stable of cutting-edge drugs to treat things like cancer.  

In snapping up Medicines Co., the pharma giant said it will lay its hands on a promising cholesterol drug called inclisiran, described by company chief Vas Narasimhan as a “potentially transformational medicine”.

Inclisiran, which recently completed its phase III study, fights “bad” LDL cholesterol in patients with atherosclerosis, or plaque buildup in their arteries.

The drug, which requires far fewer annual injections than the products currently on the market, is based on RNA interference therapy.

This is a natural phenomenon used to silence specific genes that produce harmful or diseased proteins, whose discovery in the late 1990s earned Craig Mello and Andrew Fire the 2006 Nobel Medicine Prize.

Such therapy is increasingly being used for a range of conditions.

The Medicine Co's drug specifically blocks the liver from making a particular enzyme, PCSK9, which in turn lowers the production of low-density lipoprotein.

Medicines Co has said it plans to request regulatory approval in the United States by the end of the year, and in Europe in early 2020.

Overall sales of anti-cholesterol treatments are on average rising 11 percent annually and are expected to reach $17.7 billion by 2024, according to numbers from analysis firm EvaluatePharma.

High cholesterol is a key factor in coronary artery disease, the most common kind of heart disease and the number one killer of men and women worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

If the transaction is completed, inclisiran will be added to Novartis's current cardiovascular products, including its heart-failure treatment Entresto, which saw its sales soar 61 percent year on year to $430 million during the third quarter this year.

“Novartis has a longstanding history of delivering breakthrough cardiovascular treatments for patients, and I am very excited about the opportunity to add inclisiran to our cardiovascular portfolio,” Marie-France Tschudin, president of Novartis Pharmaceutical, said in a statement.

Analysts with Jefferies hailed the move, saying there was a “clear strategic rationale” for the acquisition, and for “bolstering Novartis' cardiovascular franchise, notably leveraging Entresto.”

Novartis said it planned to pay for the acquisition with “available cash and short- and long-term borrowings.”

The acquisition, which still needs a green light from antitrust authorities, is expected to be finalised during the first quarter of 2020.

Following Sunday's announcement, Novartis saw its share price inch 0.4 percent higher to 90.14 Swiss francs ($90.40, 82 euros) a piece in midday trading Monday on the Swiss stock exchange.