CARDIOVASCULAR THERAPIES  

A Weekly Pulse on the Global Healthcare Industry

for the week of 29 October 2007

  Big Pharma Gets Lean   There was no avoiding the top stories last week. It’s turning out to be a brutal year for the biggest players in big pharma. And it seems the more cardiovascular they are, the harder they fall. Pfizer (10,000 jobs), AstraZeneca (7,600), Bayer (6,100), and Johnson & Johnson (5,000) top the list of layoffs. Now add GSK and blame the Avandia fallout, an outgoing CEO taking the heat for an incoming CEO, and an ambitious US$3 billion restructuring plan.   Some say Merck and Wyeth started this fire a few years back. But whether companies tell us they’re preparing for lean times, reeling from sales and/or safety setbacks, or trimming down to fighting weight after M&A activities, the industry may never be quite the same.     All due sympathy to all who have lost their livelihoods, there’s good news here, too. Small players with big ideas may find advantage in the turmoil. They’ll be looking for attractive partners, bargains in human capital, opportunities to make nimble strategic moves, and strong niches for innovative products. Could entrepreneurs and patients be winners in the not-so-big pharma of 2008? ______________________________________________________________________   Corporate Finance:   Archemix Corp. announced a private placement to raise minimum gross proceeds of $3.5 million and maximum gross proceeds of $10 million with Merck Group and Nuvelo Inc. on October 23, 2007. As part of the transaction, the company will issue 925,000 shares at $10.81 per share.   Biophan Technologies, Inc. has filed a Shelf Registration in the amount of $5.72 million. Biophan develops cutting-edge technologies with the goal of making all biomedical devices capable of safely and successfully working with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The Company is also helping to commercialize the Myotech Circulatory Support System (CSS).   Bristol-Myers Squibb's net income more than doubled in the third quarter to $858 million on revenues of $5.1 billion--and Plavix was the biggest reason. Third quarter last year, generic Plavix hit the market, sending sales of the clot-fighting drug into a downward spiral. Bristol's results sagged, too. But, in June, the company won a patent fight over the drug, now protected through 2011. Meanwhile, stocks of the generic form have run low, forcing patients back to the brand-name product. So Plavix sales almost doubled to $1.25 billion during the quarter.   On October 19, 2007, LeMaitre Vascular, Inc. notified The NASDAQ Stock Market that, as a result of the resignation of Guido J. Neels as a director of the Company effective August 8, 2007, the Company was no longer in compliance with NASDAQ's independent director requirement in accordance with Marketplace Rules 4350(c)(1), which requires a majority of the board of directors consist of independent directors, and 4350(d)(2)(a), which requires the participation of three independent directors on the audit committee. The Company was not obligated to comply with these requirements prior to the first anniversary of its initial public offering per Marketplace Rule 4250(a)(5), which permits a phase-in period for compliance. Consistent with the marketplace rules, the Company shall fill the vacant independent director seat in order to regain compliance either by the earlier of the Company's next annual shareholders' meeting or August 8, or if the next annual shareholders' meeting is held before February 4, 2008, then no later than February 4, 2008. If the Company fails to regain compliance within this cure period, its common stock is subject to delisting upon notification of such a determination by NASDAQ staff, which determination may be appealed.   Reliant Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Liberty Corner, N.J.-based cardiovascular drug company, has set its IPO terms to 11.72 million common shares being offered at between $25 and $27 per share. It would have an initial market cap of approximately $1.4 billion, were it to price at the high end of its range. Reliant plans to trade on the NYSE under ticker symbol RRX, with Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch serving as co-lead underwriters. This is the company's second swing for the IPO fences, having filed for a $300 million offering in early 2005, only to pull it several months later due to "unfavorable market conditions." It has not raised any private funding since then, but previously had raised over $500 million from firms like Alkermes Inc., Bay City Capital, Invermed Associates, Morgan Stanley Private Equity, Goldman Sachs, Versant Ventures.   According to an SEC filing, Fremont, CA-based ARYx plans to sell 5 million shares of its stock at an estimated offering price of $14 to $16 each, which would raise about $67.8 million if the company hit the middle of that range. ARYx has oral anticoagulant and anti-arrhythmia agents in Phase II trials.  More.   Arteriocyte Medical Systems, Inc announced that it has raised $10 million in funding from Arteriocyte, Inc. and DW Healthcare Partners on October 25, 2007. As part of the round Jay Benear, Managing Director, Rod Boone, and Doug Schillinger from DW Healthcare Partners will join the company's board of directors.  More.   The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has awarded a contract valued at up to $92 million to RTI, Research Triangle Park, N.C., for Comprehensive Scientific, Technical, and Public Health Support services. The contract was awarded by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Atlanta.    ______________________________________________________________________   Mergers & Acquisitions:   Biosensors International Group, Limited (SGX: B20) signed a sale and purchase agreement to acquire PT Fondaco Mitratama for SGD 3.45 million in stock on October 22, 2007. Cons