A recent report suggests that there may possibly be a hostile takeover bid from the American company Pfizer of up to $100bn for the Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca which is the second largest pharmaceutical company in the UK.
AstraZeneca reported pre-tax losses of $715m during the first quarter of this year compared with a $1.8bn profit for the same period in 2012.
Both companies have very valuable patents for very well known products such as Viagra, Nexium and Crestor. But patents last for just 20 years and these valuable ones will soon run out and open the doors for other companies to copy them legally.
It is therefore interesting to read that one of the main reasons for the potential takeover bid may be the fact that AstraZeneca unlike Pfizer has a long pipeline of new products following investment in R&D.
As an organisation the BIC always encourages companies to have a healthy pipeline for new products as there could be many external reasons beyond a company’s control affecting the success of its existing products and it is good Innovation strategy to have new products waiting on the back burner.
The BIC has good advice and various funding streams to help companies with their new product development pipeline.
