Merck, Lilly, and Pfizer have joined forces to create new drug discovery and development methods aimed at saving time and money by reducing the failure rate of clinical trials. The three companies and PureTech Ventures LLC have invested $39 million to launch Enlight Biosciences LLC. Enlight will represent the first for-profit venture in which Merck, Lilly or Pfizer collaborates with its competitors.
   
"Merck, Lilly and Pfizer don't see competitive conflicts because they view the technologies Enlight seeks to develop, including advanced body-imaging methods, as 'pre-competitive,'" said David Steinberg, Enlight's chief executive officer.
   
"Today, drug discovery is tremendously tech-dependent, and many of the pharmaceutical companies are falling behind," said Enlight co-founder Raju Kucherlapati, a genetics professor at Harvard Medical School.
   
"If you can find the winners earlier, and lose faster with the failures, you can really improve R&D productivity," said Steven Paul, executive vice president for science and technology at Lilly. He said that 70% of industry trials fail at the Phase II stage, the level just before final human trials. That is "just too high," he said, "and that's where these technologies come into play."
   
Enlight will establish new companies that aim to exploit any new technologies created, where members have the chance to license the technology and buy shares in it. The first of these, Endra Inc., uses sound and light imaging to examine the effects of drugs on internal organs.  

Novartis AG plans to acquire the remaining shares of Speedel Holding AG for approximately $881 million, according to a company statement. Novartis currently holds 61.4% of the company. The acquisition would give Novartis full control over the promising blood-pressure drug Tekturna that Speedel helped develop, and Novartis would no longer have to pay Speedel licensing fees.
   
Tekturna was launched in the U.S. last year and Novartis expects that it will eventually replace its blockbuster blood-pressure drug Diovan, which faces generic competition by 2012.
   
Speedel was reportedly reluctant to sell and in a statement, chief executive officer Alice Huxley said, "In light of the currently very challenging environment for Speedel, i.e. the upcoming financing needs and the depressed market sentiment, I have agreed to a solution which promises a solid fundament for the future of Speedel."
   
Dr. Huxley bought the rights to Tekturna in the mid-1990s after Novartis opted out of further development. She offered Speedel's board her resignation and, according to a Speedel spokesman, the board will decide whether to accept it and whether to support the acquisition in the next 10 days.  

Dr. Debra Yu has been appointed vice president of strategy, WuXi PharmaTech. Dr. Yu will be responsible for leading the company's strategic planning and initiatives. She will report to Dr. Ge Li, chairman and chief executive officer of WuXi PharmaTech.
   
Prior to joining the company, Dr. Yu co-led Pfizer's venture capital group and was instrumental in working in areas such as diagnostics, asset monetization and creative finance structures and Pfizer's innovation agenda. Earlier she was a general partner at Delphi Ventures and a managing director at Bay City Capital, two Bay area venture firms focused on the life sciences. Dr. Yu has also held senior positions at many leading companies and organizations like McKinsey & Co., the FDA, the Wilkerson Group, Morgan Stanley & Co., Genentech and the Permanente Co.  
   
"I am very pleased to welcome Debra on board to further increase the depth of our senior management," commented Dr. Ge Li. "With 19 years of experience in venture capital and life sciences, Debra will provide strategic guidance as we continue building a global drug and medical device R&D service platform through organic growth, partnership and M&A."

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