Not surprisingly, Wei Kang received Andre's call again.
"Dear Wei, it's like this. Last time I ordered a batch of ARC1 protein samples, and they were unanimously approved by Pfizer's team of scientists. Everyone is very optimistic about this technology and want to apply it to more biopharmaceuticals. field."
"So on behalf of the company, I want to talk to you about the patent licensing fee."
Andre didn't hide it, but directly explained his intention. He had already figured out Wei Kang's general temperament and knew that the other party had a relatively straightforward personality. Only by being sincere could he continue to cooperate.
"No problem, our cooperation has always been very pleasant. I will give you a preferential price from an old friend." Wei Kang replied with a smile.
Speaking of discount prices, Andre had an idea and suddenly remembered something.
This Mr. Wei seems to have a unique hobby and likes to collect discarded prescriptions. In the last negotiation for anti-cancer drugs, he also asked pharmaceutical companies to provide discarded prescriptions in order to be eligible to bid.
From this point of view, you might as well give it what you like and see if you can negotiate a lower price.
Andre was a little confused: "Dear Wei, the company has recently made a series of strategic adjustments to focus on the research and development of innovative drugs and vaccines. It has been engaged in mergers and acquisitions in the past six months and has consumed a lot of cash flow."
"Especially after spending US$11.6 billion to acquire the pharmaceutical company Biohaven last month, my account is already stretched thin and I can't come up with much money. However, our Pfizer family has a big business and many companies and pipelines. If you are interested, We can exchange part of the divested business.”
"In short, we hope to minimize cash payments, and it is best to pay patent licensing fees in other ways."
"Oh," Wei Kang suddenly became interested and asked, "What strategic adjustments have you made? What businesses are you going to divest and sell?"
Andre suddenly spoke non-stop: "One of the company's current goals is to embrace digitalization. It recently announced a digital upgrade plan to shift more medical staff to online interactions, open up Internet channels, and enhance the digital development strategy. You three are clear about this. You’ve always done a great job and we need to learn from you.”
“We will also focus on oncology, rare diseases, immunity and inflammation, vaccines and other fields, and have acquired four companies in these fields, acquiring Lyme disease vaccines, blockbuster migraine drugs on the market, and respiratory antivirals. drugs, as well as immune and inflammatory diseases and many other pipelines under development.”
"So next, we will definitely sell part of the business to raise funds to maintain balance of payments."
"The businesses that have been split up so far, including the consumer health care business and the generic drug business, have set up joint ventures, which only hold shares. This year, we will completely sell all our shares and withdraw from these two businesses, if Sanqing is also interested. , everything is easy to talk about.”
Andre continued calmly: "In addition, all acquired companies will strip off and sell off non-performing assets, including failed R&D projects, abandoned prescriptions, expired patents, delisted drugs, and money-losing drugs. Business, etc.”
"As far as I know, in addition to Pfizer, other multinational pharmaceutical companies are also adjusting their strategic layout and divesting non-performing assets to relieve performance pressure."
"For example, Sanofi has been hit hard recently and is preparing to sell its shares in its API company. Merck is also selling its women's health business, and GSK plans to divest its consumer healthcare business. AstraZeneca has also sold off multiple areas. blockbuster drug."
Andre has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for many years and is well aware of the trends of major pharmaceutical companies and constantly talks about the latest trends.
Weikang listened with rapt attention and was quite moved. Sanqing now has an annual revenue of 40 billion. It can be said that it has a lot of money. Like other pharmaceutical companies, it can obtain new performance growth points through mergers and acquisitions.
Especially in recent years, competition among pharmaceutical companies has become increasingly fierce. Faced with pressure from drug price cuts, centralized procurement, and patent expirations, many multinational pharmaceutical companies are conducting sales to survive. Overcome difficulties and find new business breakthroughs.
Although Sanqing now has many blockbuster drugs and top drugs, it still lacks in the layout of the entire drug production line. This is also a disadvantage of its short rise, and it cannot compare with those pharmaceutical companies that have been around for hundreds of years.
Giants like Pfizer have hundreds of drugs in research and development every year, and dozens of drugs fail or are abandoned. After so many years of accumulation, there are probably tens of thousands of prescriptions collecting dust in the warehouse.
Wei Kang felt hot thinking about it, but it was a pity that these prescriptions did not belong to him and could not be used as waste. They could only be stored in the ballast bilge. He couldn't help but secretly sigh.
At this moment, the words 'failed R&D project', 'abandoned prescription', and 'spin off for sale' suddenly floated into my ears.
He was startled for a moment, then his eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but his heart beating rapidly.
Great, why didn't he think of it?
If the discarded prescriptions are not enough, you can buy them from others.
Usually when pharmaceutical companies perform well, they may not be willing to sell them, but since they have reorganized their businesses and sold off their non-performing assets, they are naturally willing to sell them at low prices in exchange for some cash.
Of course, it shouldn’t be too obvious. It can be packaged and acquired together with some other cheap assets.
Each of these multinational pharmaceutical companies are pure-blood capitalists and are absolutely willing to sell and squeeze out every last drop of profit.
After all, all Weikang needs is discarded prescriptions that have passed the first phase of clinical trials.
Among the slightly larger pharmaceutical companies, which warehouse does not have double-digit amounts of discarded prescriptions piled up?
If they are all sold, they can be sold for millions of dollars. For many pharmaceutical companies, this is a windfall, and they can recover some losses.
Especially for some pharmaceutical companies that are about to go bankrupt, this money is a life-saving straw, and they can last for a while, and maybe they can come back to life.
Wei Kang was very excited, but his face remained calm. He nodded and agreed: "Yes, after these adjustments, Pfizer will surely be able to gain new opportunities and reach new heights in the field of innovative drugs."
"I'm very interested in what you said. You also know that Sanqing's current foundation is still very shallow, and it needs to acquire more other businesses. Pfizer's target areas do not overlap with Sanqing's. The two sides have great differences. space to collaborate with each other.”
Among the several areas Pfizer focuses on, oncology is definitely its cooperation with Sanqing’s anti-cancer drugs.
The list of rare diseases is too big. There are 3,000 diseases. It is not enough to constitute a threat.
As for the vaccine business, anti-virus and immune inflammation, Sanqing has not entered these markets at all, and there is no competition at all.
Seeing that Wei Kang's response was much more enthusiastic, Andre burst into laughter.
While he was in a happy mood, he also spoke out some of his inner thoughts.
"Dear Wei, you are always so smart. The pharmaceutical market is huge, and even a small piece of it is very profitable. We can complement each other in many ways, and we can eat this piece of cake together."
"Actually, I don't agree with the behavior of the Broad Institute. Being too greedy will only kill the goose and take the egg, ruining the prospects of gene patents. I am more optimistic about the cooperation with Sanqing. You have stronger technology, but are more tolerant and take a longer-term view." .”
"With the ARC1 protein patent, Sanqing has become invincible in the field of gene editing. What you need are friends, the more the better, so that you can get a steady stream of profits. What do you think?"
Wei Kang greatly praised it. Andre was far smarter than he thought, and it was obvious that his stance was that of an open school, not a conservative one.
"I can win over this person and use him to my advantage, but I don't know if there are many people like him in the West." He thought to himself.
The two sides had a great conversation and quickly reached a preliminary agreement.
In a few days, Andre will come with a team to formally sign the patent licensing contract.
At the same time, Weicome is also very interested in the non-performing assets that Pfizer wants to sell off.
The divestitures and sales this time were all the non-performing assets of the acquired companies, so the sale was not painful at all.
Pfizer only looks at those companies' blockbuster drugs and their research and development capabilities in this field. As for other superfluous things, it doesn't care at all.
Weikang quickly negotiated a very cheap price.
Pfizer is indeed a major M&A player. It spends billions of dollars in the pharmaceutical industry every year. It is a super financier who is constantly buying and buying. It has a lot of inventory. It has acquired no less than 10 companies in the past two years alone.
This time, the non-performing assets of 8 acquired companies were sold in one go, including but not limited to all abandoned prescriptions, delisted drugs, drugs with no development prospects, and several patents that were not selling well and were about to expire.
In order to obtain a discount on patent licensing fees, Andre even persuaded the CEO to include some abandoned prescriptions within Pfizer.
Of course, these are relatively old stocks that have been gathering dust on the shelves of the laboratory for at least five or six years, so it’s not a big deal to give them away for free.
Since it was a big sale, the price was very affordable, about $20 million.
Pfizer does not plan to pay cash, and all of it will be converted into the first batch of patent licensing fees.
Weicome is equivalent to reducing some patent fees, and then getting a lot of abandoned prescriptions and drugs with no future.
Pfizer paid some ballast waste in exchange for a very favorable discount and a reduction in patent licensing fees.
It was all bartering, not a penny of cash was spent.
Both parties were very happy and felt that they had taken advantage of the situation.
After this incident, Wei Kang tasted the sweetness and couldn't help but start thinking about other multinational pharmaceutical companies.
Just as Andre said, Sanofi, AstraZeneca, Merck, Novartis, etc., these pharmaceutical companies are all slimming down and restructuring, and divesting bad assets. He can follow the same pattern and use patent licensing fees in exchange for discarded prescriptions.
The news of the deal between Pfizer and Sanqing quickly spread throughout the industry.
****
The capital of Sakura Country, Dajing.
In a high-rise building in the city center, Eisai Pharmaceutical CEO Okada Murao was sighing, worried about the company's plummeting performance.
Eisai Pharmaceuticals is one of the five largest pharmaceutical giants in Sakura Country, with annual sales reaching US$6 billion, ranking among the top 50 pharmaceutical giants in the world.
This is a typical pharmaceutical company that relies on explosive products to make a fortune quickly. It once ranked among the top 20 in the world. However, as time has passed, Eisai's position in the global pharmaceutical market has been greatly reduced.
The company relies on two blockbuster products, donepezil and rabeprazole, and has reached cooperation with Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson respectively. Thanks to the efforts of the two giants, it has achieved huge revenue of billions of dollars in just a few years.
However, innovative drugs have always been a high-risk bet. If we want to achieve longevity in the innovative drug industry, we must solve the patent cliff problem.
The patent cliff refers to the fact that after the patent expires, a large number of cheap generic drugs emerge to seize the market, causing the sales of the original drugs to plummet like falling off a cliff.
Eisai can successfully create two major hit products, but this does not mean that its R&D strength can be on par with multinational giants.
On the contrary, Eisai, which successfully went overseas with Me-too improved drugs, has a huge gap in innovation capabilities with Western pharmaceutical giants.
When the company was first prosperous, it did not plan ahead and carry out a large number of mergers and acquisitions in a timely manner to alleviate the crisis in the R&D pipeline. As a result, the company failed to transform and faced a huge crisis.
Especially in the past ten years, Eisai has invested huge amounts of funds in research and development, but has achieved little results. Due to lack of innovation, the problem of patent cliff cannot be solved, and the company is currently in trouble.
Its biggest hit, donepezil, is an AD drug whose main function is to improve the cognitive ability of Alzheimer's patients.
This undoubtedly collides with Sanqing's AD special medicine.
Almost instantly, Eisai's flagship drug fell into disfavor, and sales plummeted.
This is no longer a problem of patent cliff, but a complete dead end.
This medicine is completely useless.
This undoubtedly gave Eisai the final blow, and the company went downhill from then on.
As CEO, Okada Murao has been racking his brains in the past two years, relying on the domestic market to barely survive.
Although a skinny camel is bigger than a horse, the company's revenue has dropped from the previous 6 billion US dollars to 2 billion.
Bad news is coming one after another. Several new drug projects have been abandoned. Money has been spent, but there is no profit at all, and it is no longer possible to make ends meet.
If it cannot find new performance points, sooner or later the company will become an ordinary generic pharmaceutical company and embark on the path of losing money and going bankrupt.
His face turned yellow, his expression was haggard, and he looked at the work report in front of him with a frown.
As he watched, veins popped up on his forehead, his eyes were red, his eyes were full of anger, and he gritted his teeth.
"Damn Sanqing, it's their news again!"
"Ba Ge, there is news that it has reached cooperation with major pharmaceutical companies. What a hell."
“It’s all the fault of the Chinese, who took away the market for Eisai’s Alzheimer’s drugs and put us in this situation.”
Mr. Okada was filled with hatred, but he had no choice but to become furious and bang the table.
"I hate it so much. Why didn't Eisai develop these drugs, anti-cancer drugs, and AD specific drugs? They should all belong to the Yamato nation."
While cursing the Sanqing Group, he turned back the work report.
Suddenly, he stopped, his eyes widened, staring at the paper in front of him.
For a long time, he gasped suddenly and violently, looking very excited, as if he had discovered something incredible.
"Fake, I didn't realize until today that this Wei Kang is good at improving discarded medicines."
"Sanqing Group has been searching for all kinds of discarded prescriptions. They must have ulterior motives and other uses. It is impossible to buy them without any use at all."
"Could it be that their drugs were all improved on the basis of discarded drugs, and then they were revived and successful?"
"In other words, many prescriptions have actually been successfully developed, but no one has discovered those new treatment directions."
"Ba Ge, why didn't I think of this?"
"Perhaps we can also try to find new treatment directions from abandoned prescriptions?"
"This is undoubtedly much easier and less troublesome than developing innovative drugs from scratch."
"Is this the secret of Sanqing Group's success?"
"It's mine now!"
(End of chapter)
