#4 - UCB Group
Allee de le Recherche 60
1070 Brussels (Belgium)
Tel: (32) 2 559 9999
Fax: (32) 2 559 9900
www.ucb-group.com
| Headcount | 8,477 | |
| Year Established | 1928 | |
| Biopharma Revenues | $2,711 | +12% |
| Total Revenues | $3,169 | +9% |
| Royalty Revenues | $421 | +13% |
| Net Income | $461 | -51% |
| R&D Budget | $773 | +21% |
| Top Selling Drugs |
|||
| Drug | Indication | Sales | (+/-%) |
| keppra | epilepsy | $956 | +37% |
| zyrtec | antihistamine | $705 | +1% |
| xyzal | antihistamine | $180 | +14% |
| tussionex | cough | $132 | -1% |
| nootropil | cognitive enhancer | $124 | -3% |
Account for 77% of total biopharma sales, up from 75% in 2005.
PROFILE
UCB is another newcomer to the Top Biopharma list. Its marketed products are all small molecules, but the 2004 acquisition of CellTech has brought the company's biologic pipeline along. Its decision to sell off its non-pharma assets (and even its bioproducts manufacturing unit) led me to decide that UCB should be ranked as a biopharma from here on.
UCB's lead pipeline biologic is Cimzia, an anti-TNF drug in the same class as Enbrel, Humira and Remicade. The company contends that Cimzia posts certain advantages over those drugs, including an earlier onset of maximum benefit (four months vs. six to eight months for its competitors) and a cheaper production model. According to an article from Reuters in June 2007, UCB's head of inflammation operations remarked that, because of Cimzia's E.coli-based process, "it's more efficient, more effective in production, so . . . it could be more cost-effective, meaning the price could come down." Cimzia's initial BLA was for Crohn's disease, but the company plans on submitting a rheumatoid arthritis BLA soon.
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Acquisitions
Target: Schwarz Pharma Price: not disclosed Announced: September 2006 What they said: "This transaction brings to UCB attractive late stage products in our targeted disease areas and a strengthening of our business in the U.S. and Europe, that will further accelerate our growth well into the next decade." --Roch Doliveux, CEO, UCB |
In October 2006, UCB and Biogen Idec formed a collaboration to develop CDP323, a treatment for relapsing-remitting MS. CDP323 is an orally active small molecule alpha4-integrin inhibitor. The companies plan to put it in Phase II trials next year. If the drug goes through to the market, BI is slated to pay more than $200 million to UCB in the deal. BI will "contribute significantly to clinical costs for Phase II and Phase III studies," according to a joint statement. The companies will split all commercialization costs and profits 50/50.
UCB's main seller, epilepsy treatment Keppra, will face generic competition in January 2009, so the $5.6 billion acquisition of Schwarz and its late-stage epilepsy and diabetic neuropathy drug Lacosamide should help UCB through a rough patch, even as it boosts UCB's debt. The company predicts savings of approximately $400 million annually within three years of the deal's close.
With #2 seller Zyrtec facing patent expiration in December 2007, UCB's got its work cut out for it to stay on this chart in the next few years.
For the full profile, including pipeline and patent information, download the PDF.
